In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Ornate.”
A visual feast for the eyes?
Some may say it is overworked, a sensory overload, yet in historic or religious terms, one can see that the designers wanted to transform material objects, into something ornate in such a way as to exemplify glory, or divinity, with a fantasy of shapes, colours, and golden embellishments, for the congregation and secular visitors for many generations, to enjoy.
Ettel Monastery
Austrian Church Nave
It is not only in medieval European churches one find ornate works of art; furniture and homely objects may also be embellished in an ornate way.
Dutch Hindeloopen artwork
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Something visual to ponder about
wonderful, the big green cupboard appears to almost have a touch of rosemaling as well?
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Thanks, Julz. You are quite right. There is the characteristic C and S scrolls that are found in Baroque and Rococco styles of art, and which of course, spawned the development of Rosemaling techniques. I think that is what drew me to photograph the cupboard to begin with. Are you familiar with the different styles of Rosemaling?
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Somewhat….I have painted traditional folk art for years. I used to run a studio and teach
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Awesome! I so enjoy experimenting and viewing many kinds of traditional art. Have you blogged about Rosemaling? If so, I would love you to share a link with me.
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No I haven’t blogged about it, I am more into my photography these days, perhaps one day I will write about it
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I will look forward to that, but in the meantime, will keep reading your other posts. (esp. photography)
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Many thanks
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Beautiful. An overload maybe, but I think when it comes to great art, everything is allowed. It overcomes all limitations.
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Thanks, Gerard. Even though at first glance, it may seem busy or chaotic, there is often a lengthy consideration of the elements and how they fit together, complement one another and balance one another out. Something I am still trying to achieve myself. The Hindeloopen door executes this perfectly well. It is busy and there is a lot happening in the design, yet it does not tire the eye, but rather excites it! How do develop balance in your art, Gerard?
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You have quite an incredible gallery! Beautiful.
Have a lovely weekend.
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Thanks so much Lucille. I hope your weekend is equally lovely.!
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Thank you too!
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All very beautiful photos, Amanda. The insides of the monastery and churches in the first three are awesome – perhaps over ‘fuusy’ for many people’s tastes, but undeniably impressive. But I really love the vibrant colours of the oriental cupboard in Denmark, and the one in Harmen Zweed’s shop in The Netherlands.
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I love the vibrant colours too Millie. I think some of the antiques have lost their initial bright colour as well. They would have been purposely painted to brighten up the dark of winter inside the home. I am sometimes criticised for colours in my art that are not traditional, or that are too bright. But at the end of the day, it is for me that I paint. So I can use the colours that are as ornate as I need them to be. Thanks for visiting! Have a lovely Sunday.
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All creative work should primarily be to please ourselves. Your artwork is vibrant and bright, and suits what you depict. I agree about items in the home being painted to brighten up the home. That custom applies to all kinds of things, including brightly coloured tapestries – though they embroidered and not painted, of course. (Sunday here has been quite wet and grey… again.) 🙂
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And Sunday here was similar, only humid with thinderstorms!
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I imagine you could do without the humid!
Amanda, are you an award free blog now? I’m trying to finish off writing another Sisterhood of the World award post, a different version to the one I had last time, and just wondered…
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No I am not an award free blog. I can accept awards and nominate others but I insist that there is no onus on the blogs i nominate to pass on or acknowledge the award on, as it is a time consuming process. This I leave entirely up to them. If that is ok with you, Millie when I will be honoured to accept.
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I totally agree! No one is under any obligation to do anything with the award, as far as I know. I think it’s OK just to accept the award (or not) and leave it at that. Many people throw nominations out to any bloggers who’d like to do it; other peoople don’t answer the questions but list nominees. I’ve seen award posts done all sorts of ways, as I’m sure you have, too. I’ll be posting tomorrow, so if you don’t like the look of it, by all means, decline. If you accept, it’s up to you how you respond to it. 🙂 Talk again soon…
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Hello again, Amanda. I just popped back to say that I’ve nominated you for The Sisterhood of Bloggers Award. I’m glad I did (pop back, I mean 🙂 ) because I noticed I’d forgotten to click the like button on this post yesterday. Anyway, here’s the link to my post so you can check it out:
https://milliethom.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/the-sisterhood-of-the-world-bloggers-award/
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Thanks so much, Millie. I will respond asap.
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Fantastic! If you let me know when it’s done I can come over and read it straight away. I tried to write questions that could be answered easily, though I know you tend to write longer answers, like me!
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HI Millie,
For some reason I am not able to reply. Your blog is marked as private and I can no longer comment.
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Hi Amanda. I emailed you this morning to explain, so I hope it all makes sense.I’ll check out your post as soon as I’m organised again.
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Great photos Amanda 🙂 The top photo of Ettel Monastery intrigues me, I thought monks lived a simple back to basics style of life, that building is anything but that!!! Lol!
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I think the European monks or friars had a pretty good life, at least inspiring artistically!!
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Its very true about the monks in the past, especially if programmes like ‘The Borgias’ is anything to go by!
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I am not familiar with that one but I can imagine…….
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