The Reading Woman and Paintings and my House Needs a New Roof

A quote on reading: "When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts." Anzia Yezierska. "Wings" from "Hungry Hearts" 1920.

 

These illustrations are from the address book I bought, "The Reading Woman", published by Pomegranate.The book has about 40 paintings in it. My favorite school of painting is PreRaphaelite and all those whose art has a resonance with that style, like the first painting above by Frederic, Lord Leighton "The Maid with the Golden Hair". The second painting is "Summertime: Portrait of the Artist's Wife" by Edward Killingworth and the third is "In the Library, St. James Square" attributed to Thomas Pole.

New Roof Needed

In the first week of May I learned that the roof on my house needs replacing. No leaks but just aging. The ocean side especially is worn. The roof is original with the house so about 65 years old, that is a long life for a roof.  The new roof will have composition shingles and a 50 year warranty. Making decisions for this project is hard for me being a senior and a widow, I miss my husband a lot, he handled projects like this. I will not shock you by telling you how much it will cost in this part of California but a hint is that I could buy a new car for that price. I got bids from 3 companies and selected one. They are booked up until mid-August, just letting you know what I have been doing, so I am on their project list for August.

Paintings That Bring Me Joy, and I Am Hosting a Zoom Group

 When I was in college I had a passion for visiting art museums and experiencing paintings and sculptures of great beauty, which led to my change of college major to Art History. I visited the Louvre perhaps 20 times, the Rodin studio, the oval room in Paris containing paintings of Monet's pond, the rooms in the Louvre full of tiny Netsuke sculpted objects, the Egyptian rooms at the Louvre. My husband and I discovered the rooms at the Tate Gallery in London with the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and that group of artists became my favorites. Here are some paintings in several genres that I like.

This above artist, Sophie Gengembre Anderson,  is new to me, she is noted for her paintings of children and women. This painting is "Picking Honeysuckle" and Anderson was a French born British artist, 1823-1903.

I love horses and paintings so combine the two and I find this painting,  "Whistlejacket" painted by George Stubbs in 1762, a winner. The painting of the horse is life size.

 Do you like the above painting? "Rome, Castle Sant Angelo" by Camille Corot, 1826-1827. My  husband and I spent several days in Rome and stayed near the Castle so saw it often.

Above is "Pretty Baa-Lambs" by Ford Maddox Brown, 1852. When seen in person his paintings are jewel like and Brown is in the Pre-Raphaelite artists group I like so much. Each of their paintings has a story, often from history, fable, poetry, Greek and Roman myth, Shakespeare or the Bible.

The above is "Women in the Garden" by Claude Monet, 1866. I hope you enjoyed this journey through some favorite paintings by a few of my favorite artists.

ZOOM and me hosting

I didn't tell you before but I volunteered to host Zoom meetings for a group of three women. We met 14 months ago, as a Zoom group for women over 55 who were finding isolation hard. Then we started meeting outdoors in a coffee shop with a huge patio and gardens across the street from the Pacific Ocean. Then, in covid's erratic way, for safety we needed to meet on Zoom again. The woman who had hosted us on Zoom left the group. I did not know if I would succeed but I did. Not too shabby for this senior lady to figure out the Zoom hosting.