Category: Books And Media

Monet and his RemarkableWater Lily Paintings

2/7/2018

My already worn copy of a great book!

Monet and his Remarkable
Water Lily Paintings
By Annette Bartlett-Golden

Convalescing from a bad cold, I spent the first three weeks after Christmas with Claude Monet in the French country village of Giverny, forty miles northwest of Paris. He was in his sixties by then and living with his second wife, Alice, and eight children in a large farmhouse with an enormous studio. Just beyond the back door lay a garden paradise of Monet’s own design with a profusion of flowers and a green Japanese bridge spanning a spectacular water lily pond. Many of his paintings hung in the homes of wealthy Americans and the feisty politician Georges Clemenceau was one of his best friends. I had been gifted Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King and with each page I sunk deeper into the world of Monet.

While I had long admired the paintings of the French Impressionist artists, particularly those by Monet, I knew relatively little about his life. I was pleased to learn that he had a stable family life, was beloved by his children and step children, as well as by a devoted circle of friends, and that he became quite wealthy in his later years. I did not know that in his early seventies, despite suffering from impaired vision caused by cataracts, Monet struggled to paint. At times, he became so overcome with frustration that he would destroy his paintings.

Nor did I realize the scope of Monet’s genius or the significance of his late works, which were primarily comprised of paintings of his water lily pond, of which there are about 250 surviving canvases. In this most ambitious series Monet set out to achieve the impossible, as he called it, on a grand scale: painting the ever changing surface of the pond on huge wall sized canvases. The results were stunning. Brilliant, shimmering nuances of color leap from the canvases resonant with dauntless expression. These works were “Larger, bolder, more experimental, visionary, and abstract,’’ writes Ross King (p. 304). “Arguably, only Michelangelo and Titian ever achieved as much, or developed as forcefully as they worked in their ninth decades.”

After reading Mad Enchantment I now see Monet and his art with new eyes. The water lily paintings that I have admired for their depiction of ephemeral natural beauty are also imbued with the raw emotions of Monet’s life experiences at the time: the loss of his second wife and two grown children, the horrors of World War I, and his deteriorating eyesight. Yet it is this which gives the paintings a power and depth that make them even more beautiful and remarkable than his previous works. I was also struck by Monet’s keen focus on the water lily theme, a lesson that would benefit me to keep in mind. Certainly, Ross King’s account of Claude Monet and his water lily paintings has increased my understanding and appreciation for a much beloved artist.

Here I am next to Claude Monet's Charing Cross Bridge, Reflections on the Thames at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

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Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories

9/25/2017

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Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories
by Annette Bartlett-Golden

While I was at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, I had the pleasure to rediscover a North Carolina author I had previously read and enjoyed, Ann B. Ross, author of the Miss Julia series. Miss Julia Speaks her Mind is the first in the series with currently nineteen books. Set in North Carolina, it tells the story of recently widowed Julia Springer, an upstanding southern woman, who discovers her wealthy husband of forty-four years has been leading a double life when his mistress and child come to her door. What ensues is a fast-paced, wild turn of events with many laughs in this coming of age story by a perceptive and witty author.

Ann B. Ross, author of the Miss Julia series, speaking at the 2017 Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in Burnsville, NC.

Ms. Ross’s presentation, “How I Get My Ideas for the Miss Julia Stories” was fabulous. Hearing Ann Ross speak about her quirky characters and the many and varied sources of her inspiration – from overheard conversations, newspaper stories, local gossip, and details from her family member’s daily experiences –was insightful. It seems anything can be fodder for fiction story writing.

Then she shared with us snippets from her fan mail, and critics, to illustrate the point that oftentimes people confuse fiction with reality, even when they know better. One writer complained “I know your books are fiction but I don’t know of any Presbyterian church that acts like the one in your book. Are you sure they weren’t Baptist?” Someone else wrote in to say she had been feeling depressed for several days because a character’s behavior had let her down. She continued, “I know you’ll say to get a life, but I’m a librarian!” Ann B. Ross has a wonderful sense of Southern humor and I laughed a great deal during her talk, as you will likely do, too, if you read her Miss Julia books.

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The African Doctor

12/20/2016

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Release poster for the comedy The African Doctor.

The African Doctor
By Annette Bartlett-Golden

When a book or movie stays with me and keeps me thinking long after I read or saw it, I know it’s something worth sharing. The comedy-drama The African Doctor is just such a movie. (The movie’s original title is Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont.) It tells the story of a gifted and conscientious doctor, Seyolo Zantoko, who leaves his native country in Africa with his family for a better life away from deep rooted corruption. Although warmly invited by the mayor of a rural French village to fill the long vacant post of doctor, Seyolo and his family are not welcomed by the villagers. Facing constant adversity of all sorts with determination and humor, Seyolo, his wife and their two young children struggle with the difficult task of finding their unique place in the community and acceptance in their new home. Finally, on Christmas Eve, there is a break through moment and things begin to take a positive turn.

I love how this charming story is told. Set in the 1970s, the story is based on the life experiences of Kamini Zantoko, one of the movie’s cowriters, growing up in the only black family in the French country village of Marly-Gomot. There is a lot of humor mixed in with the everyday struggles. Also, the pacing of the movie is similar to the pace of life in a rural village and there is a strong sense of the times. Perhaps because of this – I was also a child in the 1970s - I found it particularly easy to identify with the children and their parents. The ending, which involved the children, was a lot of fun, too. Many of the movies I enjoy the most are foreign films because of their interesting perspectives, and this one is too.

What I kept thinking about after watching this very enjoyable film was my own experiences as a newcomer and how difficult it often was – at school, in a job, in a group, in a new town. These sorts of things tend to be part of life but dealing with all of these at once plus negotiating a very different culture, as the Zantoko family did, is a challenge on a different level than anything I have experienced. Eventually the Zantokos became respected members of their community and found home. That made me wonder about ways we could all help make our own communities a better place in the coming year. Perhaps this film will inspire you, too!

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Monet and his RemarkableWater Lily Paintings

Monet and his Remarkable
Water Lily Paintings
By Annette Bartlett-Golden

Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories

Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories
by Annette Bartlett-Golden

The African Doctor

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Monet and his Remarkable​Water Lily Paintings

Monet and his Remarkable​Water Lily PaintingsBy Annette Bartlett-Golden

Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories

Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Storiesby Annette Bartlett-Golden

The African Doctor

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Monet and his RemarkableWater Lily Paintings

Monet and his Remarkable
Water Lily Paintings
By Annette Bartlett-Golden

Author Ann Ross & the Miss Julia Stories
by Annette Bartlett-Golden