The Country Bear's Contemplations

'The Surrender of Breda (detail)' as painted by Diego Velasques. The figure depicted is Claude de Rye, Baron of Balancon (circa 1576 - 1648). a general officer of artillery in the Spanish Army of Flanders, depicted among the commanders at the historic siege. The painting is also known as 'Las Lanzas'.

'Portrait of Georges Clairin' as painted by Paul Mathey. Georges Clairin (1843 - 1919) was a French Orientalist painter and illustrator. He was influenced by Eastern imagery and Moorish archiotecture. French painter and engraver Paul Mathey (1844 - 1929) was recognised as an outstanding portrait painter.

'Self Portrait' as painted in 1963 by Soviet artist, Viktor Popov (born 1948).

Alan Watts (1915 - 1973), the modern prophet of interconnectedness, find a profile of him , and an hour long talk about him here.

A photograph taken in the 1890s by Frans Gustaf Klemming (1859–1922), a well-known Swedish photographer from Stockholm.

'Portrait of Pieter d'Hont (1917–1997)' as painte by the Dutch artist Erika Visser (1919–2007) who was well known for her portraits of artists from the Utrecht art scene. Pieter d'Hont (1917–1997) was a prominent Dutch sculptor based in Utrecht, who is also depicted by Visser in other paintings by her.

'Self Portrait', as painted in 1923 by Giovanni Giacometti.

'Sketch to Illustrate the Passions — Self Conceit or Vanity' as created in 1854 by English artist Richard Dadd (1817 - 1886). It is part of a larger series titled Sketches to Illustrate the Passions. Dadd produced this extensive series of watercolors while he was incarcerated in the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital, following the murder of his father during a psychotic episode in 1843.

'Portrait of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)', painted in 1898 by French painter Edouard Vuillard (1868 - 1940).

'Self Portrait' as painted in 1574 by Neapolitan portrait painter Scipione Pulzone (1544 - 1598), also known as Il Gaetano.

'Cap'N Beard' by Polish artist Camille Przewodek (born 1947). Read an interview with her here.

The unsettling 2026 Van Gogh shirt design that you never expected for see....

'Self Portrait' as painted in 1950 by Swiss painter Cuno Amiet (1868 - 1961) who whilst completing many self portraits also completed many portraists of other people and a number of landscapes.

'The Day I heard that Mark Hollis had died', a 2019 self portrait by popular Belfast portrait painter, and Chancellor of Ulster University, Colin Davidson (born 1968). Grief at the death of gifted musicians is popularly observed, but not often expressed in paint. Find out who Mark Hollis was here.

'The Man and The Puppet' as painted in 1878 by French painter Edouard Manet. I am sure that the puppet was used as a prop in his paintings when he found it convenient to go without a live model.

A public art work probably made for the Festival of Britain in 1951 for Transport For London by Hans Unger and Ebhard Schulze, later adapted as a poster by Hans Unger and Ebhard Schulze, The poster version shows the German composer Johannes Brahms playing the piano. Situated on the piano are two busts of Beethoven and Bach and in the top left corner is a portrait of the English composer Benjamin Britten. A variety of techniques appear to have been used including painting, drawing, collage and mosaic.