The temples at Paestum

Hera I  (c560 BCE)

Athena (c500 BCE)

Hera II  (c460 BCE)

Paestum is a small town situated on the west coast of Italy, a little more than 60 miles south of Naples.  Of particular interest in Paestum are the three Greek temples, two of  which stand side by side and the third just a few hundred yards away.  They are among the best-preserved temples outside Greece.

Paestum was originally a Greek settlement called Poseidon, after the god of the sea.  There were many such settlements in southern Italy and around the shores of the Mediterranean.  Collectively they are referred to by historians as the Magna Graecia

The temples were built in the period from c 560 BCE to c460 BCE.  Two of the temples were dedicated to Hera, the wife of Zeus, and the third to Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

In the third century BCE the Greeks were driven out by the Romans.  Poseidon became Paestum and the  names of the temples were changed to their appropriate Roman equivalent.

Spanish Quarter

A wet welcome for Spring lambs!

Tree pattern ‘woodcut’ style

This image, like the previous post, is processed from a colour photograph of an actual tree.  I enjoyed experimenting to create the ‘woodcut’ effect.

Tree pattern

The girl and the daffodil

Abstract 264

Grasses

Dishwasher still life

I was undecided which of these two images to use.  I like both  –  hence, you have two for the price of one!

Pattern from the distant past

This image is derived from a photograph of part of the Boscawen Stone Circle in Cornwall.  It seems incredible to think that these stones were paced in situ in Neolithic times  –  that is, between two and four thousand years BC>

Trees on cliff top

 

Flaming sand

Just as frost on a window pane can create magical, intricate patterns, so too can an ebbing tide leave behind its own mystical shapes  –  as this photo illustrates.

Abstract ‘Magnetic field’

Bordering on the abstract

I have recently been viewing developments in art during the first decade or so of the twentieth century and decided to explore how I might apply similar stylistic ideas to one of my own still life photographs.

Out of Africa

Abstract 265 ‘Colour wall’

The palette for this colour pattern is that used by Matisse in his cut-out ‘The Snail’  The composition is derived from a photograph of my garden path, turned on its side!