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Futurism – an Italian movement of the 20th century which aimed to capture the dynamism & energy of the modern world in art. Futurists were well versed in the latest developments in science & technology. Particularly fascinated with aviation & cinematography. Futurist artists proposed an art celebrating modernity & industry. The key focus was to present a compelling creative vision for the future. They glorified speed & the working classes, believing they would both advance change. Futurists developed new techniques to express speed & motion like blurring & repetition. Made use of lines of force, a method adopted from the Cubists. Futurists worked across art forms like painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, theatre & music. Major players associated with Futurism in visual arts were Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà & Gino Severini. Awe-inspiring.

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Erik Satie, an incredible French composer, an extraordinary figure whose work defies categorisation. Satie is recognised for beautiful impressionist music. The founder of modernism. Strongly influenced the direction of 20th-century classical music. Satie invented what he called Musique d’ameublement or furniture music – a kind of background not to be listened to consciously. “I have never written a note I didn’t mean. Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied just by myself.”

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Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881 – 1973) was a naturally gifted Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist & theatre designer. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of the constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage & a wide variety of styles to develop & explore art. Exceptionally prolific, Picasso achieved universal fame & immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments.

Picasso’s Blue Period (1901–1904) is characterised by sombre paintings rendered in shades of blue & blue-green only, occasionally warmed by other colours. The Rose Period (1904–1906) symbolises a lighter tone & style with orange & pink colours featuring acrobats. Analytic cubism (1909–1912) is a style of painting Picasso developed using monochrome brown & neutral colours, where he took apart objects & analysed them in terms of their depth & shapes. Synthetic cubism (1912–1919) was a further exploration of cubism in which cut paper or newspapers were used for collage fine art.

Post the upheaval of World War I, Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. Used colour as an emotion, as an expressive element, but relied on drawings to create form & space. Sometimes, added sand to vary texture. Although his Cubist works approach abstraction, Picasso never relinquished the objects of the real world as subject matter.

“Everything you can imagine is real. Others have seen what is & asked why. I have seen what could be & asked why not? The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” 

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Claude Debussy (1862 / 1918) – an influential French composer, the founder of musical impressionism. When challenged by the registrar of Paris Conservatory as to what style he followed, Debussy replied disarmingly, “Mon plaisir“. Created a vibrant music of colours & emotions. A distinctive & passionate style. Developed an original system of harmony & musical structures sharing traits with the impressionist painters (Monet). Major works – Clair De Lune, Prélude à L’Après-Midi D’Un Faune, Pelléas Et Mélisande & La Mer. “Music is the silence between the notes.”

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Oscar-Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was a master French painter & founder of the impressionist art movement. Incredibly beautiful nature & landscape art. The term ‘impressionism‘ is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant, exhibited in 1874. Monet’s genius & ambition to document the French countryside led to a method of painting the same scene many times so as to capture the changing of light & the passing of the seasons. He made light the central focus of his paintings. To capture its variations, he would sometimes complete a painting spontaneously in one sitting, often without preparation. He wished to demonstrate how light altered colour & perception of our reality. Depictions of the water lilies with alternating light & mirror-like reflections became an integral part of his awe-inspiring art. His free flowing style & unbelievable use of colour have been described as ethereal. Extraordinary.

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There are few pleasures in life as soul-stirring & transformative as travel. There are few experiences quite like taking a lovely long road trip & venturing somewhere we’ve never been before. The serendipity, the simplest of joy can be profound & peaceful. Riding on a train & exploring the beautiful scenery is a fascinating pastime. A train is alive with wonderful things that should be seen & heard. Love their rhythm like the rails & the wheels are in tune.

Some say, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. It offers enigma, energy & unfamiliar adventures. Simultaneously, it broadens our perspectives & brings unbelievable creativity. To immerse ourselves in foreign cultures is to open our minds to incredible new ways of being. Voyages help cultivate a worldwide community in which we as humans appreciate our differences as much as we acknowledge our similarities.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. With a map in hand, the story of discovery never ends. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” Travel is my therapy.

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All of us, at one time or another, have experienced wanderlust. A desire to explore that is almost irresistible. For those who long for the open road, here’s a rich selection of poems about travel & adventure. Over 90 poems by 50 American & British masters (19-20th century) – Byron, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Masefield, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Shelley, Tennyson & Yeats. Poems celebrate the real & metaphorical journeys each one of us takes in the course of our lives towards discovery & coming home. Incredibly beautiful. Songs For The Open Road.

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