Delightful rest, beloved pleasure of the heart
Bernarda Fink sings one of the most sublime Bach arias:
Merry Christmas for all, and happy holidays!
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Christmas wishes
Saturday, 15 December 2012
The long arctic night
In the high arctic latitudes, the sun is absent for two months. But sometimes, lucky days, the full moon shines:
Down here in lower latitudes we don't often value the precious sun light and warmth. Those are priceless but free gifts to be thankful for.
Photo: Carl Skou, Kullorsuaq, Greenland
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
'Le' Wildcat Café - heritage site in the Northwest Territories, Canada
The Wildcat Café is located in the heart of Yellowknife, on old town's Wiley Road.
Coordinates 62°27′N, 114°20′W
In 1992, the cabin was declared a heritage site as an important old building, one of the earliest permanent buildings in town.
Built in 1937-1938 by prominent pioneers Willie Wiley and Smokey Stout, the Wildcat is a reminder of pioneering days.
The Café is a vintage log cabin structure and represents the mining camp style of early Yellowknife.
The Wildcat was a gathering place for the founders of Yellowknife: prospectors, miners and pilots.
Prospectors wheeled and dealed, community members held meetings and banquets, while visitors came and went.
Great place to try caribou, bison, muskox, arctic char in addition to the usual cuisine. And a coffee.
In 2011, the city of Yellowknife decided to completely renovate the log building, which had settled far into the ground and was leaning dangerously in several directions at once.
Reconstruction and repair continued during the summer of 2012 and the opening has been delayed due to a number of unforeseen problems.
The residents only disagree om the article : Le Wildcat, or The Wildcat ? As for now, the The wins.
It is surely a warm comfort to have a nice coffee in the Wildcat.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Tyko Vylka, a Samoyed / Nenets artist
The Nenets are a branch of Samoyed native people of northern Siberia, an arctic population related to the north-scandinavian (Laponia) sami. They are a nomadic people, living traditionally in tents, herding reindeer and hunting bears and seals. For centuries abandoned and then used as a cheap labour force in plants, they have now started to be respected and to have their environment and costumes protected.
I have been posting here about Novaya Zemlya archipelago, off the coast of arctic Siberia; these islands' native population is a small Nenets tribe, that was expelled from the islands as the nuclear program began.
From that ethnic group came Tyko Vylka, a man that would play a major role in local History in soviet times. But also he came to be a renowned and broadly appreciated artist, and that is what I'm writing about now.
Tyko Vylka was born in 1886, at Belushya Guba, Novaya Zemlya, and grew up among the Nenets hunters.
He was a storyteller, social and political activist , but mainly he was the most famous Nenets painter and author, notable for his Arctic landscapes.
The fabulous landscape of Novaya Zemlya inspired most of Vylka works.
The creative activity of self-taught primitivist Tyko Vylka is one of a kind. It is original and inimitable, though his style is as simple as that of a child. Painting was Tyko Vylka’s hobby and a passion for life.
Belushya Guba, 1950
In 1909, Vylka leaves for Moscow, where he studied painting . In 1910, in Arkhangelsk, an exhibition "Russian North" presented for the first time Vylka's work.
Auroras are frequent over Belushya Guba.
Many of his paintings date back to the 1950s. By that time the painter had moved to Arkhangelsk.
Art Musem of the Arctic, Arkhangelsk - Vylka works on the right.
The theme in all Tyko Vylka’s paintings is the longing for his motherland and the idea of getting the world to know more about Novaya Zemlya through art.
Seing the Matochkin Strait
Nenets on Matochkin
Matochkin strait
Arkhangelsky Arctic Museum of Art:
http://www.russianmuseums.info/M1444
I have been posting here about Novaya Zemlya archipelago, off the coast of arctic Siberia; these islands' native population is a small Nenets tribe, that was expelled from the islands as the nuclear program began.
From that ethnic group came Tyko Vylka, a man that would play a major role in local History in soviet times. But also he came to be a renowned and broadly appreciated artist, and that is what I'm writing about now.
Tyko Vylka was born in 1886, at Belushya Guba, Novaya Zemlya, and grew up among the Nenets hunters.
He was a storyteller, social and political activist , but mainly he was the most famous Nenets painter and author, notable for his Arctic landscapes.
The creative activity of self-taught primitivist Tyko Vylka is one of a kind. It is original and inimitable, though his style is as simple as that of a child. Painting was Tyko Vylka’s hobby and a passion for life.
In 1909, Vylka leaves for Moscow, where he studied painting . In 1910, in Arkhangelsk, an exhibition "Russian North" presented for the first time Vylka's work.
Many of his paintings date back to the 1950s. By that time the painter had moved to Arkhangelsk.
The theme in all Tyko Vylka’s paintings is the longing for his motherland and the idea of getting the world to know more about Novaya Zemlya through art.
Arkhangelsky Arctic Museum of Art:
http://www.russianmuseums.info/M1444
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
yupiii, 150 000 at last !
Celebration day, as I reach a magic number of viewers, one hundred and fifty thousand!
This is the statistic of the 10 most visited posts on Ultima Thule:
8743
| ||||||||||
29/11/2009
|
6527
| |||||||||
07/10/2011, 4 comentários
|
6280
| |||||||||
17/07/2010, 2 comentários
|
4099
| |||||||||
2660
| ||||||||||
12/07/2011, 2 comentários
|
2561
| |||||||||
04/09/2010, 3 comentários
|
2032
| |||||||||
16/03/2010, 1 comentário
|
1549
| |||||||||
08/07/2010
|
1439
| |||||||||
13/06/2009
|
1430
|
Thank you all so much !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)