Light Dazzles

See It On A Postcard's  Thursday Postcard Hunt looking for light, or bright, colours

Venice, the Bridge of Sighs - exhibited 1840

JMW Turner working his magic with water, sky and light in a dreamlike view of Venice. A place he visited three times.

Pottery by Patrick Caulfield 1969

The paintings of  Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005) from the 1960s are characterised by flat areas of colour with objects defined by outlines. 'Pottery' is probably his most famous painting from that decade. His style would change permanently in the 1970s with highly complex paintings that play with definitions of reality and artifice.  From static colourful pots

"Fashionable Irish Sheep"

to sheep bringing a splash of colour to an island that has 40 shades of green.

Glowing Red

 

1998: Birds

Its that time of the year, enter the robin

1965: Songbirds

or maybe a bullfinch

and a rock thrush.  I wonder where they live?

2011: The Happiness Tree

In a Happiness Tree of course.

1973: Copernicus

For more happiness look to the skies and December's colourful Geminid shooting stars.

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Red - See It On A Postcard

Saint and Snakes

 

2001: Year of the Snake

Tradition says that St Patrick banished snakes from both Ireland and the Isle of Man.  Some 800 years ago arguments were had as to whom the Isle of Man belonged to - England or Ireland (based on the absence of snakes). It was claimed Ireland but the counterclaim was that if you brought a snake into the Isle of Man it did not die, as it would have done in Ireland.

1988: Reptiles

In pursuit of green I found a venomous tree vipers (Bothrops bicolor) only found in central America and

 the Sri Lankan green vine snake (Ahaetull nasuta), 'only' mildly venomous

2001: The Snake

This snake looks more friendly, its name is Nelson the Serpent. A character created by the children's author Ulf Stark for early readers.

1995: Reptiles and Amphibians

I had thought that St Patrick had also banished toads but maybe the small Natterjack toad looked like a frog to the saint.  They are very rare and breed in shallow coastal pools.  There are a populations near me in the sand dunes of north west England, always a walk with a purpose to look for their tadpoles as the breeding season starts.  A small toad with a big 'voice' heard here

2013: Europa: The Postman's Van

Lets finish with the postman delivering those Irish stamped letters.  This is the classic An Post van although they have had a rebrand in recent times and are now replacing them with white vans

County Wicklow

with different pictures on them. My persona favourite is the flying postman in superman pose but only managed a snatched photo of one as it whizzed past at speed.

Sunday Stamps this week on St Patrick's Day is Snakes, Green or Irish Stamps - See It On A Postcard

Christmas Tidings

 

The fourth of the Advent candle has been lit today, 'The Angels Candle' which stands for love

2013: |Centenary of John Nicholson (1840-1913)

Art and angels combine in St Thomas Church on the Isle of man which is full of John Nicholson's art where angels musical and flying can be seen in the chancel and on the stamps.  More wings on the mural of the mini sheet with the archangel Michael fighting the many headed dragon (representing the devil) and Mark the Evangelist, the winged lion.

A Merry and Blessed Christmas to All

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Christmas - See It On A Postcard

Unto Us a Child is Born

 

1993: Christmas - Carvings from Alter Triptych (Design - Antonia Graschberger)

 

The Birth of Christ with lots of teeny tiny angels, I think you can never have enough angels and the wood carvers thought so too.  The stamp is more restrained.

2010: Christmas (Design - Bruce Goold)

The shepherds (and sheep) not only got the 'Angel of the Lord' but they heard a multitude of the heavenly host.

The Wise Men had no angelic guide and followed a star and eventually ended up at the right place.

So much excitement in one day time for rest but not for long

1988: Christmas - Flight into Egypt - 15th Century Book of Hours

 

when an angel warns Joseph in a dream to take his family and flee to Egypt. The other figure is Salome the midwife or nurse who accompanied them, according to the apocrypha.  She is often depicted in art with a satchel and a pole.

Happy Christmas

Sunday Stamps theme this week - Religious Christmas - See It On A Postcard

Dark Forces

 

c1974: Definitive

The sun has gone down. Beware of the things that go bump in the night like a Tentoki Demon

1997: 100th Anniversary of Bram Stoker's Dracula

or the flutter of bat wings at the window "ah the children of the night they make such beautiful music"

1977: Eskimo Mask

Who is out there looking in?

1961: Hansel and Gretel (Design - Bert Jager)

And don't forget be careful of accepting invitations from witches.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Halloween, witches or scary - See It On A Postcard

Cheers

 

The sheep enjoying their Guinness on St Patrick's Day. Sláinte Ireland enjoy your day.

All Hearts

 

1995: Greeting Stamps (Design - Bridget Finn)

 

 

A Tree of Hearts rustles in the breeze and they are ready to be given away

1986: Greetings Stamps; Children's Paintings (Brigid Teehan)

and sometimes delivered by post.  A heart can be always given to a dog.   Perhaps there is also a sonnet on the way to a loved one

1989: Greeting Stamps

or given in person.  The Sonnet by William Mulready (1786-1863) is one of his most popular paintings and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Today he is probably more famous in postal circles for his Mulready envelopes. and while not wanting to put a downer on the day has a rather fabulously ornate tomb

1999: Christmas Seals 'Sign of the Hearts

These are Denmark Post's Christmas Seals but also I think perfect for Valentines Day.  They issued them in a heart shaped sheet. 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Romance - It will be romantic at -  See It On A Postcard

Christmas Story

 

2009: Christmas (Design - Mike Heine)

All is peaceful under a star which

wise men followed from afar.

1997: Christmas (Design - Jan Lenica)

To see a boy child by prophesy described

2011: Joy to the World (Design - Andrew Perro)

with an angel by his side

2000: Christmas (Design - P Lynch)

A journey taken all in haste

1989: Christmas (Ruben's Madonna of the Basket)

the holy family blessed with grace.

1969 - Design - Fritz Weger

Don't forget the shepherds three, sending greetings from GB.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Sunday Stamps II theme - Religious Christmas - See It On A Postcard

Happy Christmas

1988:Christmas Post (Design - Mats Rehnman; Engraver - Zlatko Jakus)

Two birds sing out the joy of Christmas on this FDC, both it and the stamps are created by Mats Rehnman.

The whole delightful sheet and the Christmas scene. 

1995: Christmas

An Post's Christmas theme in 1995 was the illuminated manuscripts of Benedotto Bardone (1460-1531)

considered the last of the great manuscript illuminators.

1980:Christmas Morning (Design - Yvon Laroche of a painting by Frank Charles Hennessey)

Lastly a day to celebrate in church and one of the 43  'Painters of Canada' Christmas serigraphs originally created for Coutts/Hallmark Cards in 1931.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Religious Christmas - See It On A Postcard

Harvesting

1980: Wildlife (Artist - Wendy Walsh: Graphics and text Peter Wildbur)

Its Spring and hares are out in the open looking for a mate and perhaps, if lucky, one might see a hare like this but make a motion and its off at high speed.  Like the hare I'm speeding but through the year to harvest time

1916-20: Harvesters (Design - Ödön Tull)

and the wheat fields of Hungary.  Ödön Tull (1870-1911) had won a Hungarian stamp design competition in 1909 which resulted in the issue of what is considered today a classic stamp unfortunately by the time of the first issue Tull had died. I leave the pastoral scene and journey to

1946: Re-conversion to Peacetime (Design - Herman Herbert Schwartz; Engraver - Silas Robert Allen)

the Canadian prairies as a combined harvester reaping and threshing the wheat speeds up the harvesting process considerably.

1950: Airmail (Design - Zoltán Nagy)

I like this Hungarian airmail set which combines fields, factories and transport (see here) so I'll thrown in a tractor as well as a combined harvester.

1955: Workers

not forgetting the tractor drivers

1989: Centenary of the Agricultural Museum (Design - B Bonfils; Engraver - A Kühlmann)

this chap even has time to smoke his pipe. The mighty machine is a steam tractor from 1917 and in the distance can be seen a sight more common in 1917 of a horse drawn plow

1994: The Red Cross: Finnish Horses (Design - P Vahtero)

you cannot operate that sitting down.

1961: Definitives (Agriculture and Art)

although it looks as though neither can you on this combined harvester working in a rice field. After all this work a refreshing cold beer might be on the menu perhaps made from hops from one of the world's major growers, Germany.

1998: 1100 Years of Hop Cultivation in Germany (Design - Steiner)

Here they are harvesting the hops, today of course there is a machine that does this but not as scenically as the workers on the stamp.

The Sunday Stamps prompt this week is the Letter H - here for Hungary, Harvest, Hare, Horses and Hops - hare over for more at See It On A Postcard