<iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-PSSPTFZJ" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe>

Art & Artists

All about art and artists. Self-portraits, dream visions and more.

Sagittarian Self Portraits: Confident

Truthfulness is a Sagittarius quality — for good or bad. Maybe that is why they make such brilliant self-portraits. There is the German-Swedish painter Lotte Laserstein with a tabby cat comfortably nestled on her arm. Her gaze is a little sardonic, but quite confident thank you, as [...]

Scorpio Self Portraits: The Agony And The Absence

Francis Bacon, Oct 28 Don’t expect to find this an easy bunch of pictures to look at. We are in the land of Scorpio this month – and this sign like to deal with deeper truth. Not for Scorp the polished surface of a Gemini or the gorgeous patterns of Libra. No, Scorpio prefers to [...]

Hmmm… Just A Touch Of Scorpio?

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe born 15 Nov 1887 – Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter in Scorpio opposite Neptune (illusion, glamour)-Pluto (death again). Scorpio – death, archeology, digging deep, the bare bones – and sex. Scorpio rules the genitals, of course.

Libra Self-Portraits: Blending into the Picture

Suzanne Valadon (23 Sept 1865) Theoretically, there’s nothing more revealing of character than a self-portrait, yet this month’s artists don’t do that straightforwardly. Their own faces blend into the backgrounds of the pictures, becoming simply part of the motif. Compare [...]

Mark Rothko: Painting God

Unspecified Mark Rothko (September 25,1903) Sun, Mercury and North Node in Libra. Is one expression of Libra the erasure of ego? A reflection of the viewer Moon in Scorpio Profound emotion Jupiter in Pisces Encountering endless compassion Venus in Virgo Artistic [...]

Damien Hirst and Charles Saatchi: Market-makers

The establishment’s darling Damien Hirst The king of contemporary art in Britain is Damien Hirst, who morphed from enfant terrible to the richest artist who has ever lived in a matter of a decade or so. Despite his repeated efforts to shock the bourgeoisie, Hirst has been clasped [...]

Gemini Self-Portraits: If Pictures Spoke…

Yes – three of the artists do look as if they are just about to speak to us down the centuries. That is what you’d expect from a Gemini Sun. But I’m not sure any of them are going to say anything too complimentary. More along the lines of – well – I’ll leave [...]

Taurus Self-portraits

Leonardo’s newly discovered self-portrait. His Sun is at 3° Taurus adjustedfrom the gregorian calendar. Many years ago, I used to work with a lot of graphic designers. Of course, all sun signs were represented in this group, but the one that cropped up most often was Taurus. Taurus is [...]

Primavera: Love is All Around

Yesterday, we walked through purple violets, pale yellow primroses and cowslips, pink campion and bluebells. White petals from the mayflower tree spattered the ground beneath our feet and scented the air around us. Truly, the goddess of beauty, Venus, rules. Who doesn’t love this time of [...]

Brotherhood of Romantics: Neptune in Pisces Redux

Daydreaming by DG Rossetti London 1848: capital of the largest empire the world has ever seen, a city where the rich live in lace and cream and fripperies, children work as chimney sweeps and bootblacks, where the streets run with sewage, and where everyone is – more or less – for sale. Just [...]

Art and Astrology: Aries Self Portraits

Why is it than when astrologers talk about the most creative signs, Aries is seldom the first word that leaves their lips? The sign of the Ram is the beginning, the source, the start, the seed – and as such packs a huge amount of creative power. Especially when the Sun, the source of life, [...]

Pisces Self Portraits

Piet Mondrian, March 7 1872. It’s Pisces, so the eyes have it. Those born under the sign of the fishes are supposed to be blessed with a beautiful liquid gaze. I have to say that the two people I’ve known with truly extraordinarily beautiful eyes – one woman with eyes as [...]

Art and Astrology: Aquarian Self-portraits

Aquarius is the sign of the avant-garde – and who could be more emblematic of the avant garde than Edouard Manet. Some of his paintings are still kind of shocking when you think about it. Dejeuner sur L’Herbe scandalised Paris when it was exhibited in 1863. You can see why. What’s [...]

Astrology and Art: Capricorn Self-Portraits

There are two main ways I like to use astrology when I’m thinking about art. 1. Knowing an artist’s birth chart or simply natal Sun can give you real insight into how planets might work out in real life. Works of art are a non-verbal expression of character that often speaks more [...]

Death and the Maiden

Death and Life, Gustav Klimt 1911. Death catches up with us all – but in what guise. As a virus? A car crash? Will it come slowly or will it be sudden? Are our days numbered from the moment we are born? Medieval astrologers certainly believed they could foretell the hour of your death. The [...]

Uranus in Pisces: Liberating the Imagination

Prometheus, the revolutionary fire-stealing Titan whom historian Richard Tarnas argues should be associated with the planet Uranus. I agree with him Uranus has navigated the Piscean ocean with panache over the pat seven years, making waves in all kinds of directions. At the same time, [...]

Let your Sun shine

So on the subject of artists, I did a little exercise recently on Sun signs for my workshop at the Jam Factory. This was based on two ideas. First of all, our Sun sign is our creative centre – and secondly, all signs are creative in a distinctive way. I found a top-notch artist of […]

I spent Saturday at Art in Action, the local shindig at Waterperry Gardens here in Oxfordshire. It’s a hugely enjoyable event. Artists and craftspeople come from all over the country and there are always a few from much further afield too. As a visitor, the thing that really sets it [...]

« Previous 1 … 4 5 6