Friday, February 29, 2008

Fisherman's Bastion Egg Tempera Painting

There are many grand and beautiful buildings in Budapest, Hungary. We visited for a short time so I didn't see them all, but I was very taken by the Fisherman's Bastion. Here is an 18 x 14 inch egg tempera painting of it that I completed a couple of days ago.
I love its rounded contours, simple elegance and the warmth of its light-colored stone. It was built around 1900 and was named after the location on which it is situated: the medieval ramparts of the city walls above the Fisherman's Town. During the Middle Ages, this was the section of the city that the fishermen defended.

You can see photos of Heroe's Square, Budapest in a previous post "Heroes' Square At Night, Budapest, Hungary". And soon there will be another post showing some more of the Fisherman's Bastion and views of the city.

I dropped my laptop mid-December. I had headphones on, and my feet got caught in the lead. Next thing I knew, the computer had landed, screen corner first, on the floor with a resounding crash. Fortunately, it was completely insured for accidents. Unfortunately, it's still with the repair shop. I hope to have it back soon, and then I'll get back to posting regularly and visiting all my blog friends frequently as I used to. I look forward to it. Cheers!
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Heroes' Square At Night, Budapest, Hungary

I'm currently working on an egg tempera painting based on a reference photo taken in Budapest, Hungary. This reminded me of the rather dramatic scenes from a visit which we took there over a year ago.
The first evening we were there, after dinner, we walked down Andrassy Avenue and came upon Heroes' Square. The city is very grand and it almost feels like once upon a time it was inhabited by giants - the architecture is dramatic, the buildings are tall, and rooms are typically constructed with very high ceilings. Heroes' Square is a fantastic display of this grandeur.

The monument is known as the Millenium Monument because it was built in 1896 to commemorate
1000 years of Hungarian history since the Magyar tribes conquered the area in 896.

(Even at this late hour of the evening it wasn't possible to take a photo without tourists gett
ing in the way!)

The colonnades show the kings and princes of Hungary in chronological order.





In the center of the square is a 36 m high column with the Archangel Gabriel on top of it.







Surrounding the column at the bottom are statues of the Magyar chiefs who conquered the land.

Directly opposite one another, on either side of the square,
are the Museum of fine Arts and the Palace of Arts. During our visit, there was a Van Gogh exhibition.

Stay tuned for another DweezelJazz post about Budapest, showing views over the city and more interesting architecture.

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