※SpinalGap24 ※

Sitting in urbane garden of sun
induced by a quest for solarisation
every beam a solatium pun
where hurt and healing join in-sync' polarisation

By afternoon light in setting syllepsis
the headstrong journey ensures dawns never late
invariably on time 'cept camber-rayed eclipses
that forgiving movement of natural trait

Transfixed by a pain managed allusion
yet stirred by sweet noctilucent hope
of monadic faith in nature's fusion
4 seasons of belief; a lifetime to cope.

written by lauren6
this late afternoon.

I wrote this in praise of my host country Germany, who set me on the road to recovery a while back, with some healing and treatments that the NHS here could only wonder at. Don't get me wrong, I love England deeply, but when my health was showing signs of destroying my very life, I needed outside help...
Within pine forests I felt the hope...

The mechanics of my time in Germany
enforced absence of motion
gave preternatural insight
for dream deeper prestidignation
From greet English explanation
to habilitate by Arnsberger Wald
and Frohes Badeleben!
forever of Haliotis note
Within the obeyance of mystery
at the grass roots of entity
following the besotted course of history
recovering time with Germanic dexterity
This happy moment, resplendent with trees
in cultural forest spread by the breeze
late summers' a saviour
may it last a while longer, please.

by lauren6.

Mucha is a big favourite of mine, and during my studies in France I tried to use his style as my focus of inspiration.
This short piece is accompanied by the music of Rachmaninov...

...Beardsley was the greatest black and white artist since Daumier, better in some ways because purer in line. No one came close to him in the Art Nouveau age, without using colour. The best of them was the Czech Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), another graduate of the Academie Julian, whose first work was in the theatre and who never strayed far from it.
One warms to Mucha because he tried so hard to bring art into the lives of the people - his greatest passion - by designing first class posters, advertisements, labels for soap, toothpaste and butter, mosaic panels for municipal swimming pools, crockery, textiles, jewellery (the snake bracelet and ring he designed for Sarah Bernhardt, executed by Fouquet, is perhaps the finest piece of costume jewellery ever created), postage stamps, calendars, letterheads and every conceivable kind of illustrative work. He loved Byzantine icons, collected them and copied them. He despised Art Nouveau, or said he did; not unfairly because his was really a style of its own. Anyone interested in design should study how ingeniously Mucha weaves into a single pattern frame and content, figures and decoration, lettering and picture.

He formed a commercial love alliance with Sarah Bernhardt, when he designed the poster for the play Gismonda, perhaps the greatest theatre poster ever created - along with Lautrec's Aristide Bruant dans son Cabaret - and thereafter designed all her posters, together with costumes, sets and personal knick knacks. But Mucha needed the heady airs of Parisian cosmopolitanism: once he retreated to Bohemia in 1910 and became a Czech nationalist he fizzled out wastefully...

From "Art: A New History", by Paul Johnson.

"For the Slavs, the plastic arts are a common striving towards a symbolic manifestation... a taste for symbols is part of the inheritance of all Slavs... That is why the language of symbols is the surest way to communicate our feelings to our brother Slavs." Alphonse Mucha.

Alphonse Mucha was born in South Moravia. In 1882 he started to earn a living by painting portraits in Mikulov. The following year Count Khuen commissioned Mucha to decorate his castle at Emmahof and his brother Count Egon Belasi became his patron. He was educated at the Munich Academy of Arts and at the Académie Julian in Paris and after completing work for Count Khuen began work as an illustrator in 1889.

His first work was a theatre magazine entitled Le Costume au Theatre and in it his first drawing of Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra appeared in 1890. By 1895 he had signed a six year contract with Bernardt to produce stage and costume designs as well as posters. At the same time Mucha joined the Salon des Cent, a Symbolist group that included Bonnard, Mallarmé and Toulouse-Lautrec. He designed a poster for their 20th exhibition in 1896 and the next year he exhibited many of his works at this exhibition as well as at his own one-man show at the Topic Gallery in Prague. Between 1903 and 1922 Mucha made four visits to the United States where his work proved particularly successful. Charles Richard Crane, a Chicago industrialist and Slavophile, agreed to finance Mucha's series of 20 huge paintings entitled 'Slav Epic' (1909-1928). He continued to work on a number of projects, however, including the design of new postage stamps for Czechoslovakia in 1918 and producing a number of posters and designs for public buildings besides the 'Slav Epic' for example, 'Allegory of Prague' (1911) for the Prague Town Hall. He completed the full cycle of the 'Slav Epic' finally in 1928 and it was exhibited at the Trade Fair Palace. Just three years later he was commissioned to produce a stained-glass window for the St. Vitus Cathedral, then in 1938 embarked on yet another mammoth project involving a triptych, 'The Age of Wisdom', 'The Age of Love' and 'The Age of Reason'. Sadly they were never completed.

Mucha is best known for his luxurious poster and product designs, which encapsulate the Art Nouveau style. Yet his impressive 'Slav Epic', featuring 20 vast canvases show both his commitment to his art and his country. After his death he received little attention until an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris revived interest in his work in 1980.

Link

1 Guinness Horses and surfers
2 Smash Martians
3 Tango Orange man
4 Electric Central Heating Creature Comforts
5 Boddingtons Melanie Sykes - ice cream
6 Levis Launderette/Nick Kamen
7 R-Whites Secret Lemonade Drinker
8 Hamlet Baldy man in photo booth
9 Walkers Gary Lineker
10 Impulse Acting on...first gay ad
11 Cinzano Leonard Rossiter/Joan Collins
12 Renault Clio Papa/Nicole
13 Yellow Pages JR Hartley
14 BT Maureen Lipman 'Ology'
15 Nike - Park Life Cantona, Seaman, Ian Wright etc
16 Coca-Cola Teach the World to Sing
17 Carling Black Label Dambusters
18 Shake 'n' Vac Dancing Woman
19 Andrex Puppies
20 Real Coal fires Dog, cat and mouse
21 Ferrero Rocher Ambassador's Party
22 Oxo Family/Katie
23 Cornetto Just One Cornetto
24 PG Tips Mr Shifter
25 Castlemaine A xxxx one - sherry
26 Flake Girl
27 Milky Bar Milky Bar Kid
28 Hovis Boy on Bike
29 Heineken Refreshes (Water in Majorca)
30 Kit Kat Pandas
31 Gold Blend Couple
32 Duracell Rabbit Goes on and on and on...
33 John Smith's Bitter Dog tricks
34 Pepsi lipsmackinthirstquenchin
35 Martini Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
36 Fruit and Nut Frank Muir
37 Turkish Delight Eastern Promise
38 Apple Computers 1984
39 Fosters Paul Hogan/ballet
40 Tetley Teafolk
41 Campari Luton Airport
42 VW Changes - Paula Hamilton
43 Old Spice Surfer
44 Esso Tiger campaign
45 One-to-One Ian Wright/Martin Luther King
46 Milk Humphries About
47 Mates Condoms Chemist Shop
48 Milk Tray Avalanche
49 Heinz Beanz A million housewives every day
50 Stella Artois Flowers
51 Dulux Digby the dog
52 Homepride Flour Men in Bowler Hats
53 Sugar Puffs Honey Monster
54 Holsten Pils Griff Rhys Jones - black and white
55 Whiskers Nine out of ten cats
56 Fiat Handbuilt by Robots
57 After Eights Dinner Party
58 Hoffmeister Follow the Bear
59 Audi Vorsprung durch technik - villas
60 Rice Krispies Animated snap, crackle and pop
61 Maxell Ears are alright
62 British Airways Face
63 Yorkie Long distance lorry driver
64 Schweppes Shhh...you know who - William Franklyn
65 Fish Fingers Captain Bird's Eye
66 Toshiba Hello Tosh
67 Sony Armchair: Out of Plane
68 British Gas If you see Sid...
69 Dunlop Expect the Unexpected/Venus in Furs
70 Cresta Frothy Man bear
71 Guardian Points of view
72 Fairy Liquid Nanette Newman
73 Murray Mints Too good to hurry mints
74 Lego Kipper - cat and dog animation
75 Mars Workman, work rest and play.
76 British Rail Relax - Black and white Inter City
77 Eggs Go to work on an egg
78 Olympus Cameras Wedding Photographer
79 Remington Victor Kiam
80 Birds Eye Beefburgers Ben and Mary
81 Fruit Gums Don't forget the fruit gums, mum
82 Shell We're going well - Bing Crosby
83 Cointreau French boy and English girl
84 Brut Henry Cooper
85 Courage Best Gercha
86 Nimble Balloon
87 Strand You're never alone with...
88 Double Diamond Works Wonders
89 Chunky Clement Freud
90 Barclaycard Alan Wicker
91 B&H Small Cigars George Cole as spy
92 Gibbs SR 1st TV Ad
93 Timex Beatles lookalikes
94 Parker Pens Penelope Keith
95 Charlie by Revlon
96 Sainsbury's Dennis Healey
97 Clarks Shoes Foot Drawing
98 Meccano Boy in man's world
99 Chum Crufts/top breeders recommend
100 Stork SB Tell the difference

The Top 100 Adverts as voted by viewers of Channel 4 and Sunday Times readers.

They ignored the Scotch skeleton advert!