In the Month of July

Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël

Gabriël’s paintings were acts of patriotism, intended not only to celebrate the beauty of his homeland but to make other’s see it in the glory that he did. An influential member of the Hague School, a group of artists working in The Hague and painting realist scenes rich in atmosphere and mood, he was an outlier within the group. So fond of muted tones and a limited, sombre palette, the Hague School is still today sometimes referred to as the ‘Gray School’. Yet Gabriël saw colour everywhere, and the Dutch country side swelled before him, ‘colorful, juice, [and] fat’. ‘Our country is saturated with color’, he wrote in a letter, ‘I repeat, our country is not gray, not even in grayweather’. In direct opposition to his contemporaries, he saw in front of him a bounty of shades, vivid and moving in their density and variety and hoped that all those who looked closely would see this beauty too.

Saturday 14th November

The Moon moves deeper into Sagittarius, whose image of the Archer invites us to consider where we are directing our energy and what gives our lives meaning. Venus now returns to direct motion, following Mercury’s turning yesterday. Retrograde is the apparent backward movement of a planet as seen from Earth, symbolically associated in astrology with reflection, revision and revisiting unfinished matters. As Venus turns forward, we might reflect on our relationships, what we value and how we express care. Something we have been reconsidering may now be ready for a gentle step forward. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune remain retrograde, reminding us symbolically that different parts of life unfold at different speeds. In the garden, as in ourselves, some things are ready to emerge while others still need time beneath the surface.