Thanks, Luis!

You may be encouraging everyone to fire up their own monthly or weekly features like phoenixes from the ashes!  

The painting is stunning, I am so glad the human form has not changed within hundreds of years! :)

Dear Kathleen,

I don't know if I am encouraging other people to fire up their forums like phoenixes from their ashes, as you say, but you most certainly encouraged me to do so with my own forum a few weeks ago. That is how all this new life process began.

Thanks for showing up. You are most stimulating in fact, and I have been missing you of late. I hope you will enjoy the next featured masterwork in a few minutes from now. If there is one person I wish to present with a nice treat, it is you.

Sincerely,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Friends and Likely Visitors,

I am so glad to bring back to you a unique master piece by a rare genius of the old Flemish School: Jan Brueghel the Elder, from the famed Brueghel family of painters in the sixteen - seventeen centuries, and one of the sons of the famed Pieter Brueghel, head of the family.

Like Caravaggio's, Jan Brueghel the Elder's art belongs to the Baroque trend. The painting itself is almost unknown to the general public. But it certainly is a magnificent, colorful and most exquisite landscape and religious painting, all in one, worthy enough to hang from the walls of a king's palace.

Ah! To own a master piece like this one!

Thank You,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Christ Preaching at the Seaport
by Jan Brueghel, the Elder (1568 - 1625)
(Private collection, by a courtesy of the
Art Renewal Center)

 

NOTE: The next featured masterwork will be a total surprise... even for me. 

Hi Luis Miguel!

I was thinking about you today, thinking that many Adlandpro people would probably like to have (or buy) your paintings someday.  We will have a famous Goitizolo on our wall!  Let us know a reasonable time before you croak, because afterwards, the prices will go sky-high!  LOL!  I always say things like that to my mom, she's much older than you...and she always laughs!  She's not an artist but I just want a time-frame, as if she would know, I think she'll know somewhat ahead of time.  Remember, you're not ancient yet!  
 

I like the Brueghel, I don't think I've heard of him.  I once studied a lot about art in the mid 1990's to impress an art student, he didn't know I crammed my head full of art info within a few days from library books!  I knew more than he did about some things, especially how to retain information. Hahahaha!!!  We truly CAN learn anything if we set our mind to it!

My favorites are the impressionists, I learned that many of them thought Georges Serrault was crummy or crazy and didn't want their works displayed near his in showings.  BUT I think he was way ahead of his time with the pointillism, it's just like pixels on TV's and computers.  I also learned that VanGogh spent most of his money on tobacco, booze, and paint, he glopped it on like there was no tomorrow.  He didn't eat much.

Hi Kathleen,

You are too kind, I don't think my paintings could ever be worth any high amount of either appreciation or money from people. Besides, as you know, at this point in my life I feel raher inclined to write, though I am not very sure if I will ever be able to perform well as an English writer and well might turn back to Spanish any time from now.

Actually, I believe the joy and pleasure that I derive from writing is far more intense than those I will ever derive from painting. Aspiring at perfection at painting is too cruel a master, and if you are so severe a critic of your art as I happen to be of mine, you will never be satisfied. Maybe a little happy with the results at times, but other times you will fall prey to despair.

With writing, conversely, you derive pleasure from the very act of writing. I have tried to describe before now how I feel when I write, particularly if I do it in the most spontaneous possible way. The feeling is beyond words, as is the joy I experience after I have finished any writing, even if it is a mere article without any real merit. My breathing becomes deliciously calm and sweet, my body feels light but at the same time very strong, I stand happily erect and, above all, I cannot stop smiling. I would not change myself for anyone.

Now for a short description of the Brueghel family. They were a family of outstanding painters. Jan Brueghel the Elder was just one of them; that I remember, he lived in the Netherlands from the late sixteen century to the early seventeen century, even though his son Jan Brueghel the Younger, another great painter in the family, came to reside in Belgium where he was an apprentice to, and later a collaborator with, the great Rubens in a number of most beautiful master pieces. His father and head of the dinasty was Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the most celebrated in the family for his great genius and for the huge number of masterworks he painted. These very frequently featured precious landscapes as a background for the picturesque characters that he would portray in them, but also included most impressive and incredibly ellaborated masterworks that very much resemble those of the great Hieronymus Bosch for their enigmatic, somber characteristics. 

From among his many works I have chosen the following most acclaimed painting, The Tower of Babel, to show you. There are actually two versions of it, but this one (the "big" Tower of Babel) is the best known of the two. It has always haunted me for its unique theme and extreme perfection.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder - The Tower of Babel

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo