Art Up Close with Toulouse

Toulouse on the "Mouffe", Paris

When I was just a kitten roaming the streets of Paris—Montmarte, Rue Mouffetard and the Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter—and tangling in the feet of artists painting en plein air, I used to sneak into the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay. I spent hours with my favorite artists: Manet, Pisarro, Monet,Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas and many others. They were the French Impressionists of the post romantic era of the 19^th and 20^th Century.

And they changed the world.

The Impressionistic movement  came to prominence in 1870 to 1890, during the height of the Industrial Revolution when technological and economic progress had gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, the internal combustion engine and electical power generation. It was a time of the Franco-Prussian War and twenty years after Darwin published his Origin of Species and ten years after Lincoln was assassinated and slavery in America abolished. Marx published Das Kapital in 1867. Leo Tolstoy published Anna Karenina in 1875. George Eastman patented a process to make dry photographic plates in 1879. Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra in 1883. The London ‘tube’ was built in 1884. Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887. And Loie Fuller used silk scarves and electric lights to create her ‘serpentine dance’ in 1889. Within twenty years the woman’s suffrage

Pissaro's Boulevard Montmartre

 movement would explode and with it a new era of women’s expression would bloom.

The early Impressionists broke the rules of academic painting. They were radicals; they gave colours, freely brushed, primacy over line. Impressionism was more about painting what the artist “felt” over what s/he “saw”. Nina would tell me it is the equivalent to “showing” over “telling” in writing. Impressionists revealed the extra-ordinary world in the ordinary world. They chose common places and subjects—an urban park, a café, a garden— and painted with light to reveal their impression of universal beauty inside. The subject was no longer a static passive thing, recorded by one devoted to its obvious beauty. Impressionists participated in their subjects; they painted en plein air, and through their participation the subject flowed and evolved into a visceral experience. Impressionists used bold, often loose brush strokes (e.g., like

A closer view...

pointillism) and bright colours. It was an art of immediacy and movement, of candid poses and compositions, of the play of light expressed in a bright and varied use of colour.

It was a different perspective. The world was changing, after all. And Impressionism was the wave of change.

The movement got its name from the title of a Claude Monet work entitled Impression, soleil levant (Impression, sunrise), which provoked critic Louis Leroy into coining the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari.

In February 2010, I had the opportunity to revisit my Impressionist friends at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City with my good friend and steadfast  traveling companion, writer and GPS-challenged Nina Munteanu.

Even closer...

I have gathered round me a cadre of impeccable artists, writers and poets. We meet periodically—not unlike Renoir, Pissarro and their friends—to discuss the role of the artist in society, how the artist is perceived by his or her culture, and how art, ultimately, changes the world. If you are ever in our neighborhood (the Nova Scotia South Shore), I invite you to join us. You can usually find us at a pub with character or a café or restaurant that serves fine coffee and fresh fish. Or if you see a black Jetta with a Mickey Mouse antenna going in circles that’s probably us (lost again) on an adventure. :-3

To join Toulouse and fellow artists: book an artist’s-writer’s retreat and tour in Paris, London, New York, Florence, Merlischachen (Switzerland), or Lunenburg (Nova Scotia). See Toulouse’s Press Kit for more information.

Toulouse enjoys Monet's art at the MET in New York City

Toulouse is an accomplished artist in the Impressionist style (having reportedly studied under Isabo LaFoux in Montmartre while studying at the Sorbonne).

His paintings can be viewed in several private collections throughout Europe and North America and both originals and prints are available for purchase.

“The very act of painting–the motion of the brush, the smell and slide of paint on canvas– liberates the heart to roam the vastness of our other dimensional selves and touch others in ways unimagined. Art unifies our fractal existence in a fluid dance that celebrates beauty and life.”–Toulouse LeTrek  

 

 

See Toulouse’s other posts on the topic of art:

• New York City: Art Up Close with Toulouse at the Met
• Toronto Adventures: The McMichael Art Gallery and the Group of Seven in Kleinburg
• The Fractal Magic of Impressionism

Available soon for purchase:

• Original Artwork and prints by Toulouse LeTrek
• Toulouse LeTrek T-shirts (includes “I Love Toulouse”, “Cruise with Toulouse”, and others)
• DVDs of “Yoga with Toulouse on the Beach” (lessons in the Hatha style )
• Coffee Table Book “The Zen of Travel” by Toulouse LeTrek (includes some early travel stories not yet shared)

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