An afternoon spent wandering aimlessly in an art gallery or exhibition, letting the images feed my imagination, is sheer bliss. As with music and dance and literature, I find many forms of art inspirational in my writing. A painter whose works I much admire is David Roberts, an artist who painted wonderfully vivid scenes of […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m passionate about music across many different genres, and I often use music as an inspiration for my writing. So I was delighted, this week, to read an article in The Huffington Post on ‘lit-pop’ – songs inspired by literature. The fourteen songs profiled refer to works […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
One of my favourite styles of art is that of Pointillism: a technique in which the artist uses dots of colour to create an overall image. Notable artists who have used this technique include Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Henri-Edmond Cross and Andy Warhol at the start of his career. But for me, the master […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There is something inherently inspirational about the Montmatre in Paris, which gives its name to the surrounding district. On a clear, sunny day, climb the many steps to the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur at the summit, sit with a baguette de jambon et fromage (cheese and ham baguette) and gaze out over the rooftops of […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I recently ran a question survey via SurveyMonkey and Goodreads to discover people’s ‘most romantics’. For the question ‘Who is the most romantic artist?’, the results were as follows: Monet: 64% Renoir: 14% Da Vinci: 12% Van Gogh: 10% The founder of Impressionist painting, Claude Monet, has topped the poll. It’s easy to see the appeal […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Writing is, of course, art. For centuries it has been part of the family of arts, alongside music and drama and painting and sculpture. Certainly, when I write a vivid description of a place, I picture myself as an artist before a canvas, carefully layering up texture and colour to transport my reader to the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I love flash mobs, because they are surprising and theatrical and romantic and the very embodiment of the French phrase joie de vivre. Since their inception in 2003 (the first was in Manhattan, organised by the editor of Harper’s Magazine as a social experiment), flash mobs have crept into the public consciousness to the degree […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
