Something Beautiful

Sacred spaces

Not long ago Garrison Keillor read the poem How to be a Poet, by Wendell Berry, and it's been on my mind ever since.    These three lines make me just about swoon --

There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Autumn at the N.Y. Botanical Gardens

Here's how various sections of the New York Botanical Garden look during the fall.   Each of the pages below has nine color photos -- just mouse-over the small pics on the right to see them. 

(1)  Activity gardens --

Children's Adventure Garden   

Family Garden

(2) Tree sections --

Conifer Arboretum

Fall Foliage (personal favorite)

Forest

Ornamental Conifers

(3) Flower gardens !!! --

Chrysanthemums (personal favorite)

Conservatory

Herb Garden

Ladies' Border

Orchid Collection

Perennial Garden

Rock Garden (personal favorite)

Rose Garden

Seasonal Walk

Ingres

The National Gallery of London site has a set of 256 gorgeous zoomable paintings.  Alas, the Gallery has in recent years taken to plastering its name in multiple places on each work of art.  And yet some pictures are so wonderful that their beauty shows through nonetheless.  One of these is --

Madame Moitessier, 1856, by Ingres  (information) 

A lovely object

This decorated hardstone box showed up when I was searching for something quite else.   Note: you have to look at the enlarged picture to appreciate its intricacy. 

Strangely, the base is more beautiful than the lid.   Again, the larger picture is essential to appreciating this item. 

Church interiors

Since today is Sunday, it seems fitting that we go to church.   I propose that we go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art site, and then to its search page  and look for "church interiors."

And here's where LACMA takes us, in chronological order --

Antwerp Cathedral, 1612, by Paul Vredeman de Vries 

Interior of the Mariakerk, Utrect, 1651, by Jan Pietersz Saenredam 

Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, Tomb of William the Silent, 1653, by Emmanuel de Witte

Interior of a Church at Night, 1660, by Ludolf De Jongh and Anthonie De Lorme

 

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Happiness

This quotation has helped me in recent days --

Happiness consists in activity.  Such is the constitution of our nature.  It is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool.  -- John Mason Good (1764-1827), English physician

The important words here, for me, were "Such is the constitution of our nature."  Those words somehow helped me get going again.   

Awa Tsireh

I discovered the Pueblo artist Awa Tsireh (1895-1955) on the Internet and was immediately attracted to his work.   The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has 51 of his watercolors.   Take a look and see if they hold the same charm for you as they do for me. 

A galaxy far, far away

Pinwheel Galaxy

Annunciation

The Annunciation, ca. 1485, by Hans Memling, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. 

Two star clusters

A double open cluster. Just beautiful.