Dreams & Reality

Many A couple of years ago at Uni SIM, while studying for my English Language with Psychology degree, I remembered doing a theme on dreams and reality. There was GBS's Pygmalion which I  remembered well because I did a short comparison between Eliza Doolittle and the Julia Robert's character in Pretty Women and my tutor liked it.  Also another crazy Greek tragedy which I hate utterly, cannot remember the title but the book is still with me somewhere. Anyway, it was about how a stupid women whose husband had left her for another woman. Her revenge was to kill all her children. Craps! Well, my favourite is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Remember Bronte's Jane Eyre? Mr Rochester and the devilish woman who burned his house down? WWS is a prequel of Jane Eyre and written from the perspective of that deranged woman - Bertha Mason (in Jane Eyre), or Antoinette in WWS.

I shan't digressed. I visited National Museum's Dream and Reality Exhibition this afternoon with my students. It was VERY crowded. Most people tend to crowd round Van Gogh's Starry Night, well I cannot blame them. Afterall, it is one of the world most recognizable piece of artwork. Just like when I was at National Gallery in London, the Sunflower had the most people around it.

Here's some of my students drawing listening to instructions:

 The man in blue with a hat is Mr 'Van Gogh'. He demonstrated to the students horizontal lines in Starry Night.

These are a few painting that I like, unfortunately, I didn't get to take more as the battery in my camera went flat. Just my luck.

Cezanne's Card Player

Laermans' Work

This is a woman with a hat. Her hat is kind of abstract.

Monet's

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Cabanel's Birth of Venus

I was hoping to find a painting that I will like for a hat challenge organised by the Milliners of Etsy. The challenge is to design and make a hat based on a painting. I am still unsure which painting to base on and may ditch my original choice i.e Diego Rivera's. Nothing is fixed and I will make up my mind this weekend.

If my hat block arrives earlier, I may make a bowler hat based on Monet's The woman with the blue parasol. But the colour scheme is rather dull, well at least to me. I am not big fan of Monet as I rather like stronger colours.

In the meantime, I am taking a break from hat making ... for 1 day at least. I cut my finger with a pair of scissors last night and the gaping wound is taking its time to heal. For now, I am going to locate my Wide Sargasso Sea and re-read it.