The Perfect Gift

With a best friend birthday coming up, I was eager to find the perfect present.

She is much like me a true romantic so straight to Amazon I went looking, finding a poetry book selected by Laura Barber. Her description matched that of my friend, “As the editor of Penguin's Poems for Life and Penguin's Poems by Heart, she has lived, breathed and dreamed poetry – in libraries and on lawns, on beaches and in bed.”

Ideal......... Penguins Poems for Love;

This poetry will take you on a journey from the ‘suddenly’ of love at first sight to the ‘truly, madly, deeply’ of infatuation and on to the ‘eternally’ of love that lasts beyond the end of life, along the way taking in flirtation, passion, fury, betrayal and broken hearts. Bringing together the greatest love poetry from around the world and through the ages, ranging from W. H. Auden to William Shakespeare, John Donne to Emily Dickinson, Robert Browning to Roger McGough, this new anthology will delight, comfort and inspire anyone who has ever tasted love – in any of its forms.

(rrp £20.00)

I’ll leave a taste of the power of poetry.

(Lets hope she likes it!)

I hid my love when love till I

Couldn’t bear the buzzing fly;

I hid my love to my despite

Till I could not bear the light;

I dare not gaze upon her face

But left her memory in each place;

Where’er I saw a wild flower lie

I kissed and blade my love goodbye.

I met her in the greenest dells,

Where dewdrops pearl the wood bluebells;

The lost breeze kissed her bright blue eyes,

The bee kissed and went singing by,

A sunbeam found a passage there,

A gold chain round her neck so fair;

As secret as the wild bee’s song

She lay there all the summer long.

I hid my love in field and town

Till e’en the breeze would knock me down;

The bees seemed singing ballads o’er,

The fly’s buzz turned a lion’s roar;

And even silence found a tongue,

To haunt me all the all summer long;

The riddle nature could not prove

Was nothing else but secret love.

John Clare

Photograph, Suffolk by Rhian Brighton

The Girl behind the Painting

I’m have enjoyed writing about what really interested me for the last two months and have discovered the joy of blogging so far. Countless times I’ve tried to write about things that are current and news worthy, but I feel that most of my influence comes from things that have happened in the past. Also with being retro becoming so chic this is how I will continue.

It did although occur to me that I hadn’t really introduced myself, but instead the content of the blog. So I would like to start by saying “Hi!” and explaining why I had decided to use a painting instead of a photo for my profile.

Two words..... Rene Gruau

Rene Gruau (1909-2004) one of the greatest fashion illustrators ever to have lived and an ultimate favourite of mine. No one paints glamour and elegance like him, being commissioned for numerous vogue covers the legendary Gruau’s work embodies all that is the fashion world. I will write about Graua a lot in this blog so I won’t bore you for now.

The simplicity of this painting is what first attracted me to Gruau’s work. It shows the flirty but innocent figure surrounded by waves of flowery lines; the woman appears to be naked but the background creating a busy feel she doesn’t become explicit but feminine and mysterious. And my favourite element is all in black and white.

Seeing that I want to share the artists that mean and inspire me I won’t make it a habit of sharing my own work but as this painting is representing me, here is my transcription of this beautiful painting.

Ohh opps, my name is Danielle Higgins, 20 from Suffolk currently living in Leeds, enough from me until next time.

Valentines Vettriano

“To the world you are just one person, but to one person you are the world!”

And today is the time to express your feelings to your lover, best friend or to that person who holds the other half of your heart. So with this in mind I want to share an artist that depicts love, in such an effortless form.

Jack Vettriano Dance Me to the End of Love.

Jack Vettriano taught himself to paint after receiving a set of watercolours from a girlfriend, he had left school at sixteen to follow a career in mining engineer in Fife, Scotland and now is considered The People’s Painter. Vettriano has had sell out exhibitions all over the world and his work has become immediately recognisable.

Ballroom dancing has been a past time of past generations the activity in which people socialise, enjoy and romance there partner in ways that electro house can’t do.

This garden party dance shows the wonders of a warm summers evening that any magic could be possible under the twinkling light of the tree. The class of the attire shows elegance and beauty in this forgotten occasion, where all present embrace the experience of the “Waltzers”.

Elegy For a Dead Admiral

Lost love is apparent in this painting, the sadness of the young girl eating alone being served upon her makes this image one so heartbreaking. As love grows fonder with absent; years women have stood by the shore waiting for their loves to return from sea, so the widower waits too.

This is my favourite Jack Vettriano painting and one which I have founded my version of love on. The Singing Butler illustrates that true love doesn’t need anything to validate it that being in the company of that person is enough to forget the world and be captivated by their presence.

Apologies for the soppy post but unfortunately this is the affect of Vettriano and will leave now In Thoughts of You.

A Valentine's Card

With Valentine’s Day less than a week away, and the corporation conglomerates rubbing their marketing hands together, how should we really convey our passion for the one we love?

The dream of that perfect date, perfect gesture, and the perfect guy to sweep you off your feet, that head over heels love shown in every chick flick, Rom com movie (and boy I’ve seen them) In every shop, restaurant and every diary marked with little red hearts by the 14^th shows that love is in the air this month, but how romantic are the guys in our lives?

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)

I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

E E Cummings

Over 1 billion valentines cards sent worldwide every year, but what does a card mean? After receiving an anonymous card this week I thought about the endless possibilities of this admirer but was left with the feeling of uneasiness, I wondered how romance had been altered into an out of the ordinary occurrence, I mean Romeo and Juliet got hitched in the space of 24 hours and their tale is considered the greatest love story ever told.

So when the meaning of the thought is what really counts, then how should these feelings really be expressed? in a unique way besides when E E Cumming is what men have to live up to and all any girl really wants and hopes for is something from the heart.

Valentine’s Day is that perfect opportunity to get personal, creative and romantic, the thought of those great long lost loves should inspire us to show that special person the art of writing how we truly feel. The penmanship of a captivating love letter speaks leaps and bounds and in turn bounds that love.... well at least for another year.

To all the hopeless romantics out there let’s pray whilst watching the stars from our balconies this decade is the one for love.