Moving Pictures and Red 29

Listening to the radio yesterday evening I was reminded what an amazing group the Beatles were, the track that astonished me again was Lady Madonna - clearly it was influenced by Fats Domino in its style and delivery.

Credit where it's due

Why though is it more than a pastiche - how is it that some people when trying to emulate their heroes take their tribute to something else - I'mm reminded of one of many books that's made me think of  recognising that we don't create in a vacuum and building on what has gone before is not a bad thing -the book being Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist .


In fact many of the  things that seem original are a fusion of an idea and an existing  work - what would Picasso have done if he was Roy Lichtenstein - the idea of an experiment is not far from what challenges people and brings something new forward.


So on to Moving  Pictures - I'd heard mention of this BBC radio programme but forgotten the title - thankfully it was mentioned on Pick of The Week (BBC radio's personalised summary of standout radio programmes) so caught up with it and found that it's a great contrivance - they say that a picture's worth a thousand words but also that Radio has the best pictures and the idea goes someway to addressing both of these perceptions.

A programme worth catching up on

The first programme of the series was all about The Harveters by Pieter Bruegel (The Elder) from about 1565 - the benefit the radio offers is that you can look at the picture (on a computer in high definition) and zoom in on the detail while you listen to the commentary .


The talk was about the work, the technique and memories of harvesting but looking at the picture you can see too how it fits in with other paintings of the time and the subject - it makes me think of how a modern interpretation (heavily mechanised in the West or culturally different) of the subject could be captured in photography.

The next programme is about a  'Flower Painting' by Rachel Ruysch and I'm looking forward to hearing some insightful thoughts.

Flowers inspired by but not actually 'painted' by Rachel Ruysch  outside the National Gallery,
London  in June this year

Red 29

Traditionally 'White Goods' can be red too as noticed in local shop

And it seems to generate a premium too