And a Happy New Year...

I have received so many cards over the Christmas and New Year period that there is no way I can put them all on this blog.  So I have just chosen a couple of my favourites.  The above one (1269) is from Susanne, my friend in Dortmund, Germany. 

This one (1273)  is from eight year old Katya, a postcrosser (UA-900492) in the Ukraine.

It had these super stamps on it -

The above stamp is of a beautiful Russian actress from the turn of the Twentieth Century.  Vera Kholodnaya was the first star of Russian silent cinema. Only five of her films still exist and the total number she acted in is unknown, with speculation ranging between fifty and one hundred.  She died young as a result of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Anastasia from Minsk in Belarus sent me this delightful card - 1223 - which says (in Estonian) 'May your Christmas wishes come true'.

This map of Switzerland - 1201 - came from Michi (CH-174908).

This was the first time I had ever seen a hologram stamp (which proved impossible to scan properly).

 Chloe from the Philippines sent me this direct swap map - 1208 -

 
 Books, of course, feature on a lot of my cards.  This one - 1195 - from Danielle in Nebraska is by Katsuhisa Toda and is entitled 'The Key'.

 Bonnie Jeanne sent me this Reading Woman card  - 1222 - which is one of my favourites.  By Edouard Gelhay it is entitled 'Elegant Women in a Library'.

 Kate, a teacher from Russia, sent me this postcrossing card (RU-2247373) from my favourites - 1205.

We have had a mild winter so far but there are floods across the whole country (100 flood warnings last night alone).  So the title of this card from Danielle - "Mail in all conditions" - seems quite appropriate even if we haven't had the snow yet.  Meanwhile Danielle and much of North America is freezing.

Many of my Christmas postcards featured Santa Claus in his various guises but on this one from Monica tomten knocks on the door on Christmas Eve while the family are gathered at the table rather than sneaking down the chimney overnight.

 The postal services have been extra busy over the last few weeks  as 1197 from Heleen in The Netherlands shows.

Heleen used one of the best postal services stamps I have seen yet -

Natalya, a Russian civil engineering student and postcrosser (RU-2236074), sent me this Happy New Year Card (1191) and I am happy to pass on those same wishes to you...

I have been so lucky.  And I haven't even shown you my New York cards from Virginia, my cards of India from Amit,  or my Chinese cards from Dai Li yet...

From Croatia, from Sweden, from the USA.....

954 – from Danielle in Nebraska another bookish card for my collection.  I wonder why there are so many postcards of books and reading (not that I’m complaining – far from it!)?  This is not a photo, as it might appear first glance.  It’s a rather superb oil on canvas by John Frederick Peto (1854-1907).

 

Peto was an American trompe l'oeil ("fool the eye") painter who was long forgotten until his paintings were rediscovered.  In his day they were considered mere novelty and trickery and ignored by the artistic community.  Peto was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the same time as fellow trompe l'oeil artist William Harnett. Until he was in his mid-thirties, he submitted paintings regularly to the annual exhibitions at the Philadelphia Academy. In 1889, he moved to the resort town of Island Heights, New Jersey, where he worked in obscurity for the rest of his life. He and his wife took in seasonal boarders, he found work playing cornet at the town's camp revival meetings, and he supplemented his income by selling his paintings to tourists. He never had a gallery exhibition in his lifetime.

Trompe l'oeil is a genre of still life that aims to deceive the viewer into mistaking painted objects for reality. Exploiting the fallibility of human perception, the trompe l'oeil painter depicts objects in accordance with a set of rules unique to the genre. For example, Peto and Harnett both represented the objects in their paintings at their actual size, and the objects rarely were cut off by the edge of the painting, as this would allow a visual cue to the viewer that the depiction was not real. But the main technical device was to arrange the subject matter in a shallow space, using the shadow of the objects to suggest depth without the eye seeing actual depth. Thus the term trompe l'oeil—"fool the eye". 

A couple more ‘Forever’ stamps from 2013.

955 – It’s autumn and apple-picking season, says Monica, who sent me this lovely, gentle Jan Bergerlind painting from Sweden.

956 – from Gerrit in the Netherlands (NL-2090475).  Alkmaar is noted for its cheese market, every Friday during Summer.  

957 – from Veronica in Russia (RU-1968385) came this lovely Russian Folk Arts card. 

The stamp depicts a woollen shawl woven in Pavlovsky Posad in Moscow Oblast.

 958 – This is the second postcard I have had from Malaysian postcrosser Khor (MY-169659).  It shows the traditional Indian festival of Thaipusam.  It looks rather painful to me!!

Aren’t these the most beautiful stamps?

959 – And another wonderful Inge Look card – this one from Seija (FI-1880985).  They are coming in thick and fast!

This is the first time I’ve had one duplicated but since it’s my favourite I don’t mind at all – one of them can stay on my notice board.

960 – I thought this is my first Croatian card, thanks to Nikola (HR-46344), but I've discovered I have had a Croatian postcard previously but it was actually sent from Belarus so it didn't count.

 

Betina is a village located on the Croatian island of Murter, seven km from Tisno, where a drawbridge connects the island and the mainland. The largest of the Šibenik archipelago islands, and the closest to the mainland, it has been populated since the time of the Illyrians (tribe of Liburns). Remains of the Roman settlement of Colentum as well as many ruins of Roman villas, murals, and mosaic testify to its occupation during the period of the Roman Empire.

  

A resumption… maps, books and a love letter!

Some recent snail mail…

827 - What better place to resume posting than with a handwritten Love Letter from about 1900 from my Austrian friend Renate?

912 - This is a Ukrainian post-box, courtesy of Julia (postcrossing UA-747921).

 It had this beautoful stamps on it.

927 – A card sent by Dai Li from China shows Joseph Roulin, a French postman, by Van Gogh.   

The Roulin Family is group of portrait paintings Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles in 1888 and 1889 on Joseph, his wife Augustine and their three children: Armand, Camille and Marcelle. This series is unique in many ways. Although Van Gogh loved to paint portraits, it was difficult for financial and other reasons for him to find models. So, finding an entire family that agreed to sit for paintings, in fact for several sittings each was a bounty.  Joseph Roulin became a particularly good, loyal and supporting friend to Van Gogh during his stay in Arles.

Here are some more US state maps I have received recently –

566 - Arizona from my friend Carol in Washington.

581 – New Mexico, also from Carol - this is one of my favourite State maps.

 718 – New Mexico from Sarilyn who lives in Texas but has a holiday home in New Mexico. (Postcrossing US-2304232)

661 - Oregon from my friend Arianne who also loves in Washington - another good example of the State map that shows what goes in the different parts of the State.

830 – Oregon from JarieLyn, a friend from Las Vegas

889 – My lovely Belarusian friend Mish had a holiday in Turkey -

887 - And Mish can have a walk here in this park in Minsk during her breaks at work - 

And I have acquired two new friends who have sent me lots of cards – Damien in France and Dai Li in China.  I shall feature some of their contributions soon.

Meanwhile here are some books -

736 - from Viktoria in Voronezh in Russia  (postcrossing RU-1816704)

748 - from Heleen in The Netherlands - a picture of Emile Zola by Edouard Manet -

 

772 - from my friend Danielle in Nebraska who is one of my most regular postcard swappers and who always seems to find exactly the right card for me.    This is 'Girl reading in a sunlit room' by Carl Holsoe (1863-1935).

809 - From Anastasia in Belarus came this postcard by contemporary artist Pino. 

Pino Daeni (November 8, 1939 – May 25, 2010) was an Italian Impressionist book illustrator and artist. He is known for his style of feminine, romantic women and strong men painted with loose but accurate brushwork. Considered one of the highest paid book illustrators of his time, he created over 3,000 book covers, movie posters and magazine illustrations.

These were the wonderful stamps Anastasia found for me.

860 - Another "reading" card from Daniell.  She and I have noted that there are very few pictures of men reading compared to those of women.  And those of men tend to be newspapers rather than books.

 

934 - from Jean-Michel (postcrossing FR - 318375) came this one 

I loved all the stickers and stamps he used on the back ...

935 - Jonnukka from Finland (postcrossing FI-1872109) sees me drinking a coffee and reading a book.  Fairly accurate.  That's what I'm off to do now before bed.....

See you soon...