Month: August 2016

40 paintings for Sedona 

oil painting of Grand Canyon by Angie Brooksby
| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli

I began painting these on 8 August. Seeing them like this makes me feel as though it was not much work. It would be hard to calculate the number of individual brushstrokes. In October they will be available at the Carre d’artistes gallery in Sedona.

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Three of these are homages to other artists.

This is one of my favorites. That’s a road not a river.

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This one was a bit of a puzzle. Tiny brushstrokes to create distance. Tiny brushstrokes everywhere.

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Here are some of the larger sizes. Two of these are homages to other painters.

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Because of the limited palette this little one is my favorite out of the forty.

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Some of the smaller ones.

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The audio books I listened to while painting are:

  • The Birth of Classical Europe by Simon Price read by Don Hagan
    • The Brexit results got me questioning the origins of Europe. The massacre in Nice on Bastille day (the equivalent of the USA 4th of July) made me wonder why the Islamic state wants to dominate the planet. I needed to know more about how and when cults came across the continent. Simon Price’s tome raises many questions about how history is studied. I liked that he presents theories and explains why they may contradict eachother. He explains contexts of events and how history was interpreted by our ancestors. Noteworthy to my question is the Assyrian empire — 2300 years before the birth of Christ and 2700 years before Mohammed supposedly lived. It was interesting to me to know that for nearly 5000 years there has been war around the Mediterrenean.
  • Ancient Egypt by Anthony Holmes read by Jonathan Keebe
    • A micro dose of basic history read in one hour
  • The Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
    • Moore is one of my favorite authors. I needed some tragic comedy.
  • Napolean in a Nutshell by Neil Wenborn
    • Another mini history. No doubt Nap was one kickass dude. More warring in the Mediterranean, Europe and the middle East.
  • The Mental Floss History of the World by Steve Wiegand and Erik Sass read by my favorite voice artist Johnny Heller
    • Highly recommended. It’s irreverent and informative. It includes silly but very intersting facts like the invention of the condom, firecrackers and more. It’s definitely one of my all time favorite books. A  quote quoted from Democlytes, “Good times lead to complacency and weekness.”

No doubt the last few generations of western cultures have lived good times. We are complacent and weak. It’s time to wake up and take responsibility for the humanitarian crisis we have allowed our leaders to create.

Marianne at La Republique

| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli

place de la Republique- oil on canvas- 36×36 cm- Brooksby

The Monument à la République was inaugurated in 1883. Léopold Morice is the sculptor. 

The bronze on the pedestal is Marianne. She is an allegorical figure of the French republic. 

Three stone female figures, also allegorical, flank the pedestal. They are La Liberté, L’Égalité et de La Fraternité. A bronze lion symbolizing universal suffrage stands at Marianne’s feet.

A bust of Marianne is present in every state school. Marianne wears a phrygian cap. 

I think this fact is interesting because phrygian was somewhere in the middle east. The bonnet is considered to be of anatolian origin. This hat became a symbol during the revolution because it represents the pursuit of freedom. Emancipated Roman slaves wore a similar hat.