Ah Linda..I have always liked her music, but more than her music, I thought that during the 1970s she was one of the most beautiful women in the world.  I never get tired of her song "Long, long time"
Between her and Olivia Newton-John, I don't know whom I liked better in the 70s...
I always go back and forth and change my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0qm8nq8RcA

Ah Linda..I have always liked her music, but more than her music, I thought that during the 1970s she was one of the most beautiful women in the world.  I never get tired of her song "Long, long time"
Between her and Olivia Newton-John, I don't know whom I liked better in the 70s...
I always go back and forth and change my mind.


2 great artist along with Carly Simon & Barbra Streisand in the 1970's.

I think Linda Ronstadt is VERY underrated. I think she is mega talented and very pretty also.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFRRYyrx7o



This song always brings tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVr2eOBmo_U



Cat

I think Linda Ronstadt is VERY underrated. I think she is mega talented and very pretty also.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFRRYyrx7o



This song always brings tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVr2eOBmo_U



Cat


I always liked Somewhere Out There.

I agree with you all. Linda Ronstadt is a special talent...and I will admit to remembering her 'roller skate' poster well. ::)

Bert Convy popped up in all sorts of 70's tv shows. Saw him in Charlies Angels just a couple of weeks ago...  Didn't realise he was dead though!  :-\\

I think Linda Ronstadt is VERY underrated. I think she is mega talented and very pretty also.


Cat

Ah pretty yes..I had some fantasies during the mid to late 70s about her.

I agree with you all. Linda Ronstadt is a special talent...and I will admit to remembering her 'roller skate' poster well. ::)


I remember that poster.

More photos of beautiful Linda.
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/10979457/Linda%20Ronstadt%20%201968.jpg
http://johngushue.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/03/linda_ronstadt_circa_1975.jpg
http://image.lyricspond.com/image/l/artist-linda-ronstadt/album-the-very-best-of-linda-ronstadt/cd-cover.jpg

British Person of the Day: Joshua Reynolds
Biography


"I would rather be an apothecary than an ordinary painter, but if I could be bound to an eminent master, I would choose the latter."

Born 16 July in 1723, Joshua Reynold's family were substantial burghers in the small town of Plympton, in Devonshire, on the south-west coast of England. His father was a clergyman-schoolmaster and other relatives were tradesmen in the town. Joshua was a serious, studious boy, and when he was about 17 his father favoured apprenticing him to a local apothecary. Joshua had other ideas. For years he had been drawing, copying prints in his father's library and studying a book called Essay on the Theory of Painting by the British artist Jonathan Richardson, a work that fired his ambition to become a painter. At the age of 12 he had already painted a portrait of the Reverend Thomas Smart on sailcloth, using shipyard paints. It was not much of a portrait, but his father agreed that it showed talent. So when it came time to decide whether Joshua was to learn the apothecary's trade or seek a career in art, a well-to-do friend of the family, a Mr. Craunch, was called in to evaluate the boy's efforts and give his opinion. After due consideration Mr. Craunch thought that it might be arranged for one of London's best-known portrait painters, Thomas Hudson, to look at young Joshua's work. Hudson, whose many assistants and assembly line methods enabled him to turn out competent likenesses by the dozen, was a native of Devonshire and often returned there to visit. If he saw promise in Joshua, perhaps he would take him on as an apprentice; in that event Mr. Craunch agreed to pay for Reynold's upkeep and training.

In this way, Joshua Reynolds became a painter. In his own mind he soon saw himself as more than a painter, more even than a great painter. He would dedicate himself to the task of raising the prestige of British painters so that they would be accepted in aristocratic society, as leading men of letters already were. It was a large ambition for a young artist, but he never abandoned the goal, and to a remarkable extent he attained it.

In Hudson's "portrait factory" in London, where he entered a four-year apprenticeship, Joshua mastered the mechanical tricks of the trade so quickly that after about two years Hudson agreed to let him begin an independent career as a professional. Reynolds then left London to paint portraits at Plympton, but upon the death of his father in 1746 he set up housekeeping with his two unmarried sisters at Plymouth Dock (now Devonport). In making this move Joshua knew exactly what he was doing. To become a fashionable painter and raise his calling to high social status, he realised that he must make aristocratic friends, and Plymouth Dock, a Navy base, was a good place to begin. In those days nearly all British Navy officers belonged to the aristocracy.

For nearly three years Joshua worked doggedly, producing portraits that ranged from poor to good; the best were in no way extraordinary. He painted the local gentry and a good many naval officers, and his pleasant, earnest personality made many friends. But the big opportunity he was waiting for did not come until 1749 when a squadron commanded by a young nobleman, the Honourable Augustus Keppel, put into Plymouth to repair storm damage. Reynolds painted the commodore's portrait, which turned out to be the best he had done so far, and the two men became fast friends. When the squadron was seaworthy again, Keppel invited the artist to sail with him to the Mediterranean.

Reynolds left Keppel's ship at the Balearic island of Minorca, then a British stronghold. There he painted enough portraits to finance another step in the career he had planned for himself - a pilgrimage to Italy, the fountainhead of European art. He would study the old masters, especially Raphael. Then he would return to England and convince his countrymen that he could not only paint in the grand Italian manner but that he could do it more successfully than any of his British predecessors. He landed at Leghorn in January 1750 and headed for Rome, where he stayed for two years before visiting Florence, Bologna, Parma and Venice.

In Italy Reynolds did very little painting. He had not come to learn technique, which he felt he already knew. His program was analogous to that of the scholars of his period who read and reread Greek and Latin authors in order to stock their minds with apt quotations from Homer or Virgil and allusions to events in ancient history. He would cram his mind instead with images from Italy's glorious tradition of art. By spending hours in palaces and religious buildings where classical statues and paintings by the old masters were on display, Reynolds memorised faces, expressions, gestures, the arrangement of points of interest, and the uses of background light and shade to enhance the effect of figures in the foreground.

No doubt Reynolds would have liked to return to England to paint famous scenes from the Bible or classical mythology, as the old masters had done. But he was a practical man, and he knew only too well that such "history pictures" by British artists would not sell. Wealthy Englishmen paid large sums for pictures in the grand Italian manner by Continental artists, but from native British painters they still bought almost nothing but portraits. Reynold's plan, therefore, was to use his own adaptation of the grand Italian styles of history painting in doing likenesses of English sitters. If his idea met with success, he hoped it would influence other British painters. Thus England's aristocrats might gradually come to recognise that native-born artists were capable of creating fine works other than portraits and accept them on a higher level.

In 1753 Reynolds was back in London to put his carefully thought out plan to the test. His first picture to attract public notice was a full-length portrait of his friend Commodore Keppel striding along a storm-lashed shore. It was no accident that the commodore's pose almost exactly duplicated that of the famous ancient Greek statue, the Apollo Belvedere. Nor was it an accident that the commodore's pose was almost identical to the one that Allan Ramsay - who was then the leading painter in London and who had also studied in Italy - used earlier for his well-known portrait of the Scottish chieftain Norman MacLeod. By painting a portrait similar to Ramsay's, Reynolds intended to demonstrate that he was the better artist, with a new and more vibrant way of bringing the grand Italian styles to British portraiture.

He succeeded exactly as he had planned. Augustus, Viscount Keppel won spectacular acclaim and put Reynolds in enormous demand as a portrait painter. By 1755 the demand for Reynold's work was so great that he had painted more than 100 portraits. Not all were heroic or attempted to be; many were mere "heads", which cost less than a full-length likeness. But when Reynolds got a commission for a full-length portrait, especially when the sitter was a high-ranking nobleman, he usually painted him in a pose adapted from a well-known classical or renaissance model.

Few people in 18th century Britain regarded this practice of using the creations of the old masters to glorify English sitters as a form of artistic plagiarism. Indeed it was admired and applauded. While envious rivals of Reynolds sometimes whispered that he was making a fortune out of the concepts of other artists, the critics, connoisseurs and picture buyers did not see it that way. They agreed with Reynolds that he was naturalising on British soil the noble tradition of the grand Italian style.

This early success made Reynolds London's leading painter. He had brought to British painting a new versatility, but to his mind this was not enough. To accomplish the rest of his declared purpose of raising the social prestige of British painters, it would be necessary to set an example for them. Now he must make influential friends in the highest ranks and move conspicuously in the best society. As his fortunes improved, he advanced to successively larger houses where he could entertain impressively and he made a special effort to cultivate men of letters, who had already succeeded in elevating their social status.

His most important conquest was Dr. Samuel Johnson, the acknowledged ruler of London's literary life. Johnson was fourteen years older than Reynolds was, but the two became lifelong friends, and Reynolds often declared that Johnson was his source of wisdom and inspiration. Reynolds was a middle-class provincial with no formal education beyond his father's grammar school, and Johnson's endless conversation, full of classical allusions and rolling, latinised sentences, was as good as an Oxford education. Other intimates of Reynolds included Oliver Goldsmith - poet, novelist and playwright - and Edmund Burke, a leading statesman as well as a man of letters. Encouraged and perhaps coached by his literary friends, Reynolds began to write articles on art and aesthetics for the Idler, a literary magazine.

Business continued to flood into his studio. In order to handle the deluge - sometimes more than 150 portraits in a year - he employed a good deal of help. In the manner of Hudson, but never as mechanically, Reynolds planned and blocked out the portraits and painted the faces and other crucial parts himself. Under his watchful supervision his assistants did the rest, especially the clothes and backgrounds.

Shortly after the accession of George III, in 1760, Reynolds bought a large house in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), in the most fashionable part of London. There he built a splendid gallery to show his pictures. The mansion in Leicester Fields became one of London's leading intellectual and social centres. There Reynolds kept open house, limited of course, to people of standing. To the house came the eminent statesmen of the day, the most famous writers, musicians and philosophers, the nobles and aristocrats, the most dazzling beauties of society and the theatre. Few painters came; although Reynolds had set himself up a model for other British artists to emulate and was kind to artists in need of a helping hand, he never allowed himself to be close friends with a painter who might become a rival.

No 18th century British artist was as fiercely dedicated to the cause of British painting as Reynolds was. Curiously enough, the snobbish and sometimes pompous Reynolds harboured a modesty about his own talent - and therein lay his strength. He began his career believing that he was an average painter who could rise to greatness by studying classical artists and European masters and applying their themes, compositions, settings and even their costumes to portraiture. This conviction became the driving force in his crusade to link British painting, which had little tradition of its own, to important European art thorough the ages. It also fuelled his own work; while striving to duplicate the grand manner of the past, he never stopped trying to improve as a painter. And his range of creativity suggests that he achieved excellence despite his theories rather than because of them.

In 1768, when the Royal Academy of Art was founded to promote the fine arts in Britain, Reynolds was a natural choice for President. The Royal Academy was not only a lobbying body for artists and the home of an immensely important annual selling exhibition, but it was also the official art school. For the next twenty years, Reynolds combined his practice as a painter with the task of running the Academy. In 1769, taking his pedagogic functions very seriously, he delivered the first of his annual Discourses to the students of the academy in which he set forth the idealistic, moralising principles of academic art. His authority in the Academy was paramount and with his fifteen Discourses (delivered over the next two decades) he became the official spokesman of the Academy's thinking, and to an extent was personally responsible for developing its theory. The lectures were later published as The Discourse on Art and have become the classic expression of the academic doctrine of the Grand Manner.

In 1764 Reynolds founded the Literary Club, which included essayist and critic Samuel Johnson, actor David Garrick, statesman Edmund Burke, writer Oliver Goldsmith, writer James Boswell, and dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By this time, Reynolds had done more than any other artist had to raise the public profile and the social standing of the fine arts in Britain. In 1769 he was knighted by George III, and in 1784 he succeeded Allan Ramsay as painter to the king.

Reynolds is credited with more than 2000 portraits. Unfortunately, his use of bitumen (or asphalt) and experimental pigments and methods made some of his colours fade prematurely. Reynolds ceased to paint, because of failing eyesight, in the summer of 1789 and he died in London on the 23rd of February 1792.

http://www.abcgallery.com/R/reynolds/reynolds231.jpg

Self-Portrait

British Person of the Day: Edward Shackleton, late Baron Shackleton

Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton, Baron Shackleton, KG AC OBE PC (15 July 1911 – 22 September 1994), was a British geographer and Labour Party politician.

Born in Wandsworth, London, he was the younger son of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. In 1938, he married Betty Homan, and they had two children: the Hon. Charles Edward Ernest Shackleton and the Hon. Alexandra Shackleton.

In 1934 Shackleton organised the Oxford University Ellesmere Land Expedition and chose Gordon Noel Humphreys to lead it. Shackleton accompanied the party as the assistant surveyor to Humphreys. The expedition was eventually responsible for naming Mount Oxford (after the University of Oxford) and the British Empire Range.

In 1946, Shackleton was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for Preston in a by-election. In 1950, he was elected MP for Preston South, re-elected in 1951. In 1955, he stood down and was made a life peer as Baron Shackleton, of Burley in the County of Hampshire in 1958. In Harold Wilson's government, he served as Minister of Defence for the RAF 1964-1967, Minister without Portfolio 1967-1968 and Paymaster General 1968. He was Leader of the House of Lords from 1968 to 1970, and subsequently Opposition Leader of the House of Lords.

From 1971, he was President of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1994 he became the Life President of the newly founded James Caird Society, named after the boat in which his explorer father and crew escaped Antarctica (itself, in turn, named for James Key Caird (1837-1916), jute baron and philanthropist). He acted also as patron of the British Schools Exploring Society (B.S.E.S.) from 1962 until his death in the New Forest aged 83.

In 1990 he was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, "for service to Australian/British relations, particularly through the Britain/Australia Society".

Lord Shackleton was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, in which role he was deeply interested in the development of geography at Southampton. A portrait photograph of Lord Shackleton was unveiled by his daughter the Hon. Alexandra Shackleton in December 1997 in the university's Shackleton Building, which houses the Departments of Geography and Psychology.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/explorers_history/sir_ernest_shackleton_portrait.jpg

http://www.jamescairdsociety.com/pix/Shack%20Scott%20Wilson.jpg
I forgot to post this yesterday...

http://www.sydenham.org.uk/ernest_shackleton_01.gif

http://www.sydenham.org.uk/ernest_shackleton_01.jpg
A Blue Plaque for Ernest Shckleton on a house where he used to live in Lewisham London.

British Person of the Day: Joshua Reynolds
Biography


"I would rather be an apothecary than an ordinary painter, but if I could be bound to an eminent master, I would choose the latter."

Born 16 July in 1723, Joshua Reynold's family were substantial burghers in the small town of Plympton, in Devonshire, on the south-west coast of England. His father was a clergyman-schoolmaster and other relatives were tradesmen in the town. Joshua was a serious, studious boy, and when he was about 17 his father favoured apprenticing him to a local apothecary. Joshua had other ideas. For years he had been drawing, copying prints in his father's library and studying a book called Essay on the Theory of Painting by the British artist Jonathan Richardson, a work that fired his ambition to become a painter. At the age of 12 he had already painted a portrait of the Reverend Thomas Smart on sailcloth, using shipyard paints. It was not much of a portrait, but his father agreed that it showed talent. So when it came time to decide whether Joshua was to learn the apothecary's trade or seek a career in art, a well-to-do friend of the family, a Mr. Craunch, was called in to evaluate the boy's efforts and give his opinion. After due consideration Mr. Craunch thought that it might be arranged for one of London's best-known portrait painters, Thomas Hudson, to look at young Joshua's work. Hudson, whose many assistants and assembly line methods enabled him to turn out competent likenesses by the dozen, was a native of Devonshire and often returned there to visit. If he saw promise in Joshua, perhaps he would take him on as an apprentice; in that event Mr. Craunch agreed to pay for Reynold's upkeep and training.

In this way, Joshua Reynolds became a painter. In his own mind he soon saw himself as more than a painter, more even than a great painter. He would dedicate himself to the task of raising the prestige of British painters so that they would be accepted in aristocratic society, as leading men of letters already were. It was a large ambition for a young artist, but he never abandoned the goal, and to a remarkable extent he attained it.

In Hudson's "portrait factory" in London, where he entered a four-year apprenticeship, Joshua mastered the mechanical tricks of the trade so quickly that after about two years Hudson agreed to let him begin an independent career as a professional. Reynolds then left London to paint portraits at Plympton, but upon the death of his father in 1746 he set up housekeeping with his two unmarried sisters at Plymouth Dock (now Devonport). In making this move Joshua knew exactly what he was doing. To become a fashionable painter and raise his calling to high social status, he realised that he must make aristocratic friends, and Plymouth Dock, a Navy base, was a good place to begin. In those days nearly all British Navy officers belonged to the aristocracy.

For nearly three years Joshua worked doggedly, producing portraits that ranged from poor to good; the best were in no way extraordinary. He painted the local gentry and a good many naval officers, and his pleasant, earnest personality made many friends. But the big opportunity he was waiting for did not come until 1749 when a squadron commanded by a young nobleman, the Honourable Augustus Keppel, put into Plymouth to repair storm damage. Reynolds painted the commodore's portrait, which turned out to be the best he had done so far, and the two men became fast friends. When the squadron was seaworthy again, Keppel invited the artist to sail with him to the Mediterranean.

Reynolds left Keppel's ship at the Balearic island of Minorca, then a British stronghold. There he painted enough portraits to finance another step in the career he had planned for himself - a pilgrimage to Italy, the fountainhead of European art. He would study the old masters, especially Raphael. Then he would return to England and convince his countrymen that he could not only paint in the grand Italian manner but that he could do it more successfully than any of his British predecessors. He landed at Leghorn in January 1750 and headed for Rome, where he stayed for two years before visiting Florence, Bologna, Parma and Venice.

In Italy Reynolds did very little painting. He had not come to learn technique, which he felt he already knew. His program was analogous to that of the scholars of his period who read and reread Greek and Latin authors in order to stock their minds with apt quotations from Homer or Virgil and allusions to events in ancient history. He would cram his mind instead with images from Italy's glorious tradition of art. By spending hours in palaces and religious buildings where classical statues and paintings by the old masters were on display, Reynolds memorised faces, expressions, gestures, the arrangement of points of interest, and the uses of background light and shade to enhance the effect of figures in the foreground.

No doubt Reynolds would have liked to return to England to paint famous scenes from the Bible or classical mythology, as the old masters had done. But he was a practical man, and he knew only too well that such "history pictures" by British artists would not sell. Wealthy Englishmen paid large sums for pictures in the grand Italian manner by Continental artists, but from native British painters they still bought almost nothing but portraits. Reynold's plan, therefore, was to use his own adaptation of the grand Italian styles of history painting in doing likenesses of English sitters. If his idea met with success, he hoped it would influence other British painters. Thus England's aristocrats might gradually come to recognise that native-born artists were capable of creating fine works other than portraits and accept them on a higher level.

In 1753 Reynolds was back in London to put his carefully thought out plan to the test. His first picture to attract public notice was a full-length portrait of his friend Commodore Keppel striding along a storm-lashed shore. It was no accident that the commodore's pose almost exactly duplicated that of the famous ancient Greek statue, the Apollo Belvedere. Nor was it an accident that the commodore's pose was almost identical to the one that Allan Ramsay - who was then the leading painter in London and who had also studied in Italy - used earlier for his well-known portrait of the Scottish chieftain Norman MacLeod. By painting a portrait similar to Ramsay's, Reynolds intended to demonstrate that he was the better artist, with a new and more vibrant way of bringing the grand Italian styles to British portraiture.

He succeeded exactly as he had planned. Augustus, Viscount Keppel won spectacular acclaim and put Reynolds in enormous demand as a portrait painter. By 1755 the demand for Reynold's work was so great that he had painted more than 100 portraits. Not all were heroic or attempted to be; many were mere "heads", which cost less than a full-length likeness. But when Reynolds got a commission for a full-length portrait, especially when the sitter was a high-ranking nobleman, he usually painted him in a pose adapted from a well-known classical or renaissance model.

Few people in 18th century Britain regarded this practice of using the creations of the old masters to glorify English sitters as a form of artistic plagiarism. Indeed it was admired and applauded. While envious rivals of Reynolds sometimes whispered that he was making a fortune out of the concepts of other artists, the critics, connoisseurs and picture buyers did not see it that way. They agreed with Reynolds that he was naturalising on British soil the noble tradition of the grand Italian style.

This early success made Reynolds London's leading painter. He had brought to British painting a new versatility, but to his mind this was not enough. To accomplish the rest of his declared purpose of raising the social prestige of British painters, it would be necessary to set an example for them. Now he must make influential friends in the highest ranks and move conspicuously in the best society. As his fortunes improved, he advanced to successively larger houses where he could entertain impressively and he made a special effort to cultivate men of letters, who had already succeeded in elevating their social status.

His most important conquest was Dr. Samuel Johnson, the acknowledged ruler of London's literary life. Johnson was fourteen years older than Reynolds was, but the two became lifelong friends, and Reynolds often declared that Johnson was his source of wisdom and inspiration. Reynolds was a middle-class provincial with no formal education beyond his father's grammar school, and Johnson's endless conversation, full of classical allusions and rolling, latinised sentences, was as good as an Oxford education. Other intimates of Reynolds included Oliver Goldsmith - poet, novelist and playwright - and Edmund Burke, a leading statesman as well as a man of letters. Encouraged and perhaps coached by his literary friends, Reynolds began to write articles on art and aesthetics for the Idler, a literary magazine.

Business continued to flood into his studio. In order to handle the deluge - sometimes more than 150 portraits in a year - he employed a good deal of help. In the manner of Hudson, but never as mechanically, Reynolds planned and blocked out the portraits and painted the faces and other crucial parts himself. Under his watchful supervision his assistants did the rest, especially the clothes and backgrounds.

Shortly after the accession of George III, in 1760, Reynolds bought a large house in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), in the most fashionable part of London. There he built a splendid gallery to show his pictures. The mansion in Leicester Fields became one of London's leading intellectual and social centres. There Reynolds kept open house, limited of course, to people of standing. To the house came the eminent statesmen of the day, the most famous writers, musicians and philosophers, the nobles and aristocrats, the most dazzling beauties of society and the theatre. Few painters came; although Reynolds had set himself up a model for other British artists to emulate and was kind to artists in need of a helping hand, he never allowed himself to be close friends with a painter who might become a rival.

No 18th century British artist was as fiercely dedicated to the cause of British painting as Reynolds was. Curiously enough, the snobbish and sometimes pompous Reynolds harboured a modesty about his own talent - and therein lay his strength. He began his career believing that he was an average painter who could rise to greatness by studying classical artists and European masters and applying their themes, compositions, settings and even their costumes to portraiture. This conviction became the driving force in his crusade to link British painting, which had little tradition of its own, to important European art thorough the ages. It also fuelled his own work; while striving to duplicate the grand manner of the past, he never stopped trying to improve as a painter. And his range of creativity suggests that he achieved excellence despite his theories rather than because of them.

In 1768, when the Royal Academy of Art was founded to promote the fine arts in Britain, Reynolds was a natural choice for President. The Royal Academy was not only a lobbying body for artists and the home of an immensely important annual selling exhibition, but it was also the official art school. For the next twenty years, Reynolds combined his practice as a painter with the task of running the Academy. In 1769, taking his pedagogic functions very seriously, he delivered the first of his annual Discourses to the students of the academy in which he set forth the idealistic, moralising principles of academic art. His authority in the Academy was paramount and with his fifteen Discourses (delivered over the next two decades) he became the official spokesman of the Academy's thinking, and to an extent was personally responsible for developing its theory. The lectures were later published as The Discourse on Art and have become the classic expression of the academic doctrine of the Grand Manner.

In 1764 Reynolds founded the Literary Club, which included essayist and critic Samuel Johnson, actor David Garrick, statesman Edmund Burke, writer Oliver Goldsmith, writer James Boswell, and dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By this time, Reynolds had done more than any other artist had to raise the public profile and the social standing of the fine arts in Britain. In 1769 he was knighted by George III, and in 1784 he succeeded Allan Ramsay as painter to the king.

Reynolds is credited with more than 2000 portraits. Unfortunately, his use of bitumen (or asphalt) and experimental pigments and methods made some of his colours fade prematurely. Reynolds ceased to paint, because of failing eyesight, in the summer of 1789 and he died in London on the 23rd of February 1792.

http://www.abcgallery.com/R/reynolds/reynolds231.jpg

Self-Portrait

Thanks Phil :)

Thanks Phil :)
No problem.

There should be a plaque for Joshua Reynolds in London, I will post it later.

The word of the day...Elf
An elf (plural elves) is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine or semi-divine beings (wights, vættir) endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind. In pre-Christian mythology, they appear to have been divided into light elves and dark elves, difficult to delineate from the Æsir (gods) on one hand and the dvergar (dwarves) on the other.

In early modern and modern folklore, they become associated with the fairies of the 19-century Romantic portrayal of English folklore and assume a diminutive size, often living underground in hills or rocks, or in wells and springs. 19th-century Romanticism attempted to restore them to full stature, often depicting them as very young, probably adolescent (lack of facial hair on male elves), men and women of great beauty. From their depiction in Romanticism, elves entered the 20th-century high fantasy genre in the wake of the publications of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially the posthumous publication of his Silmarillion where Tolkien's treatment of the relation of light elves, dark elves, black elves and dwarves in Norse mythology is made explicit.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/ulilfocker/Elf-1.jpg
http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx155/WiCkEdWiTcHy/Elf_by_tatertot101010.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/chinadragon/Drizztcontempt.jpg
http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn371/juggs_67/Fairy.jpg
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad36/xylia-the-light-hearted/elf.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/Ayakitten31/elf.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg193/vjones60/Fairies%20-%20Elves%20-%202/mariposa.jpg

The person born on this day...Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell (pronounced /ˈfɛrəl/;  born July 16, 1967)  is an American comedian, actor, voice actor and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Stranger than Fiction, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro, and The Other Guys. He is considered a member of the Frat Pack, a generation of leading Hollywood comic actors to emerge in the late 1990s and the 2000s including Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, and brothers Owen  and Luke Wilson.
Ferrell was born in Irvine, California, the son of Betty Kay (née Overman), a teacher who taught at Old Mill School elementary school, and Ray Lee Ferrell, Jr., a guitarist for The Righteous Brothers.  His parents were both natives of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina  and moved to California in 1964;  Ferrell also has Irish ancestry.  He first attended school at Turtle Rock Elementary, and later attended Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, both in Irvine. He attended University High School in Irvine, and was a kicker  for the school's varsity football team.  He told the Orange County Register that the dullness of Irvine contributed to the growth of his humor. "Growing up in suburbia, in safe, master-planned Irvine, there was no drama so we had to create it in our heads. My main form of entertainment was cracking my friends up and exploring new ways of being funny. I didn't have to have the survival mode instinct like other comics, who grew up in tough neighborhoods. I had the opposite. For me, I grew up in Mayberry, and the humor broke the boredom. And there was a lot to make fun of."

He enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he studied Sports Broadcasting and graduated with a degree in Sports Information. He is also a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. After graduating in 1990, he developed his improvisation skills as a member of the comedy group The Groundlings.
Saturday Night Live
Ferrell (as Alex Trebek, left) and Darrell Hammond (as Sean Connery, right) in the SNL sketch "Celebrity Jeopardy!".

Ferrell joined Saturday Night Live in 1995 and left in 2002 after a successful 7 year tenure. He returned to host twice (both in season finales), and once in the cold open of the final episode of Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday

During his time on SNL, Ferrell made a name for himself with his impersonations, which included:

    * U.S. President George W. Bush
    * Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray,
    * Singer Robert Goulet (crooning a cappella pieces of music by Sisqó, Baha Men, and Notorious B.I.G.),
    * Singer Neil Diamond,
    * Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton (who was quoted several times to favor Ferrell's impersonation),
    * Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy,
    * United States Attorney General Janet Reno,
    * Convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski,
    * Game show host Alex Trebek,
    * Fictitious black private detective Shaft,
    * Professional wrestler-turned-Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura,
    * U.S. Vice President Al Gore (Darrell Hammond took over once Ferrell started playing Bush),
    * Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,
    * Cuban President Fidel Castro.

As Gene Frenkle of Blue Öyster Cult in the Saturday Night Live sketch More Cowbell

His original characters included "Morning Latte" co-host Tom Wilkins, Ed the Horse's twin brother Ned, fictional Blue Öyster Cult member Gene Frenkle (physically modeled after Blue Öyster Cult vocalist Eric Bloom), music teacher Marty Culp, Spartan cheerleader Craig Buchanan, Dale Sturtevant from "Dissing Your Dog", Hank of the Bill Brasky Buddies, David Leary from "Dog Show", and night clubber Steve Butabi in a sketch that went to the big screen in 1998's A Night at the Roxbury.

Ferrell returned to Saturday Night Live as a guest host on May 14, 2005, and May 16, 2009. Both times, he reprised his role as Alex Trebek in the "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches. On the May 14 appearance, Ferrell reprised his role as Robert Goulet in a fake commercial advertising a series of crooned ringtones and, during the performance of the song "Little Sister" by musical guests Queens of the Stone Age, Ferrell came on stage playing the cowbell.

Ferrell became the highest paid cast member of Saturday Night Live in 2001 with a season salary of $350,000.
Film

During his time on Saturday Night Live, Ferrell appeared in several movies: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar, The Ladies Man, Dick, Drowning Mona, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Zoolander.

His first starring role came after his departure from SNL with Frank "The Tank" Richard in Old School (2003). The film "belongs to Mr. Ferrell," declared the New York Times, which described how he "uses his hilarious, anxious zealotry to sell the part." Old School was a major success and Ferrell received an MTV Movie Awards nomination for Best Comedic Performance.

The title role in Elf (2003) followed, as did another MTV Movie Awards nomination. Ferrell continued to land comedy roles in 2004 and 2005 in films such as Melinda and Melinda, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Starsky & Hutch earning himself a place among Hollywood's Frat Pack. In 2005, Ferrell earned $40 million. In 2006, Ferrell starred in Stranger Than Fiction and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; both received critical and box office success. Ferrell's performance in Stranger Than Fiction introduced audiences to the dramatic potential of Ferrell's acting talents. On December 27, 2006, 'The Magazine' named Ferrell as one of its three actors of the year in their 2006 year in review issue.
Ferrell at the premiere of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, December 2007.

Ferrell appeared as part of a pre-game video package for the Rose Bowl along with Texas alum Matthew McConaughey. Ferrell also sang a song at the ESPY Awards in 2006 about Lance Armstrong and Neil Armstrong. He and John C. Reilly also did a spot during the 2008 ESPY Awards where they made demands in order for them to appear at the ESPYs like asking Portland Trail Blazers' center Greg Oden to tuck them in at night and tell them stories of the old times or to bring back the Cold War so the Olympics can be interesting again.

Ferrell participated in a 79th Academy Awards musical-comedy performance with John C. Reilly and Jack Black, wherein they sang a song about comedies being snubbed by the voters in favor of dramas.

In May 2009 it was announced Ferrell is in talks to star in Neighborhood Watch, a comedy about an urbanite who moves to the suburbs and uncovers a conspiracy. In negotiations to direct is David Dobkin, who gave Ferrell a cameo in Wedding Crashers. In August 2009, Ferrell decided not to do the film. In the summer of 2009, Ferrell did a large amount of filming with several young actors. He helped out on a film entitled Making a Movie, which is now on DVD.

Ferrell's most recent film Land of the Lost was released in June 2009 and was a commercial and critical flop after earning $19 million on opening weekend, about two-thirds of what the studio expected.
Voice acting

Ferrell has worked as a voice actor in several animated television programs, including his portrayal of Bob Oblong, a 1950s-style father with no arms or legs, in the short-lived animated television series The Oblongs. He has had several guest appearances on Family Guy, where he played the Black Knight in "Mr. Saturday Knight", as well as Fat Greek Guy and Miles "Chatterbox" Musket in "Fifteen Minutes of Shame". Ferrell also starred as Ted (a.k.a. The Man in the Yellow Hat) in the movie Curious George and guest voiced on an episode of the FOX sitcom King of the Hill as an overly-PC soccer coach. He will voice the title character in the upcoming DreamWorks Animation film MegaMind.
Funny or Die
At the British premiere of Talladega Nights. September 12, 2006

In April 2007, Ferrell launched "Funny or Die", a streaming video website where short comedy films are uploaded and voted on by users. The site features The Landlord, starring Ferrell and Funny or Die co-founder Adam McKay. Ferrell's character is harassed for the rent by his landlady, a swearing, beer-loving, two-year-old girl (played by McKay's daughter, Pearl). Child psychologists have criticized Ferrell and the McKay family for child exploitation, to which McKay responded:

    Fortunately she is in this great stage now where she repeats anything you say to her and then forgets it right away, which is key. She has not said the 'B-word' since we shot the thing.
    —Adam McKay

They followed with the release of a video entitled "Good Cop, Baby Cop" which also starred baby Pearl; the end of the video stated that this would be her final appearance and wished her a happy "baby retirement."

In September 2008, Ferrell released another video entitled "Will Ferrell Answers Internet Questions" where he takes some pressing questions and comments from his fans.

Other Ferrell's appearance on "Funny or Die", website is in video called Green Team, featuring also McKay and John C Reilly. It shows militant ecologic activists terrorizing crew on filming set.
Stage career

Ferrell made his Broadway debut taking on departing U.S. President George W. Bush in a one-man show called You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush. The show started performances on January 20, 2009 in previews — Bush’s final day in office — at the Cort Theatre and opened officially on February 1. The limited engagement played through March 15, 2009.
Eastbound & Down

Ferrell co-produces (with Adam McKay) an HBO show starring Danny McBride called Eastbound & Down. He also has a recurring role as car dealer Ashley Schaeffer.
Personal life

In August 2000, Ferrell married Swedish actress Viveca Paulin, whom he met in 1995 at an acting class. They live in New York City and in Orange County, California and have three sons, Magnus Paulin Ferrell, born March 7, 2004, Mattias Paulin Ferrell, born December 30, 2006, and Axel Paulin Ferrell, born January 23, 2010.

In 2006, I-Newswire.com, a site that accepts submissions from readers and publishes them as "press releases", reported that Ferrell had died in a paragliding accident. The hoax was published before its factual inaccuracy was noticed. The story was further propagated when it appeared on Google News.

Ferrell is a fan of USC Trojan football. At USC, Ferrell was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and is now an active alumnus. Ferrell has worked with former head coach Pete Carroll to do motivational stunts for the players during the season.

Ferrell is also a supporter of Chelsea, an English Premier League football club. Ferrell represented Chelsea as honorary captain in the coin toss before the Chelsea v Inter Milan match at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on July 21, 2009.

Ferrell enjoys running and has participated in several major marathons such as the Boston, New York and Stockholm Marathons. He also raises money for charity, including his Scholarships for Cancer Survivors campaign through Crowdrise; a social networking community for volunteers and a micro-donations fundraising platform.

In 2007, Autograph magazine named Ferrell the worst celebrity autographer. Its editor stated, "What's so frustrating about Will Ferrell being the worst autograph signer this past year is that he used to be so nice to fans and collectors and a great signer. What makes him so bad is that he'll taunt people asking for his autograph." In response, Ferrell has stated, "I don't know how I got on the list. I sign a lot of autographs," but has admitted to taunting autograph-seekers: "I do. I really do. I'm like, 'How badly do you want this autograph?' 'Are you sure?' 'You say you're my biggest fan, really, prove it.' I'll do things like that. They have to earn it."

Ferrell had noted that, although he was well known for his SNL impersonation of President George W. Bush, he chose, for both professional and political reasons, not to meet the President on several occasions, unlike his SNL predecessor Dana Carvey's famous chummy relationship with George H. W. Bush: "I declined, partly out of comedic purposes, because when I was on the show Saturday Night Live at the time, it didn't make sense to really meet the people that you play, for fear of them influencing you. And then the other side of it is, from a political standpoint, I don't want to meet that guy." Ferrell also appeared on an episode of Man vs. Wild, where he traveled throughout the tundras of Sweden with the show's host, Bear Grylls. In the episode, Ferrell came across various unique situations, which included eating the eye of a reindeer.

Ferrell made a comical debut as a relief pitcher for the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, on May 6, 2010. He was introduced as "Billy Ray 'Rojo' Johnson", and was brought in to relief pitch for the sixth inning. He then entertained the fans by bringing a sack of beer cans to the mound, as well as being ejected and getting chased by the opposing batter. He revealed himself to the fans when his moustache fell off during the chase. The appearance was cooked up by Ferrell and the Express, who sent out a press release announcing Johnson's "signing", to promote The Will Powered Golf Classic the following day at the nearby Cimarron Hills Country Club, which benefits Cancer for College, an organization that provides scholarships to cancer survivors. Ferrell is also an avid fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Awards and nominations

Emmy Awards

Nominated:

    * 2001: Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program (for Saturday Night Live)

ESPY Awards

Won:

    * 2007 ESPY Awards, Best Sports Movie (for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby)
    * 2008 ESPY Awards, Best Sports Movie (for Semi-Pro)

Golden Globe Awards

Nominated:

    * 2006: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (for The Producers)
    * 2007: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (for Stranger than Fiction)

James Joyce Award

    * 2008: James Joyce Award from University College Dublin's Literary and Historical Society in recognition for "excelling in his field".

MTV Movie Awards

Won:

    * 2007: Best Kiss for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (with Sacha Baron Cohen)

Nominated:

    * 2003: Best Comedic Performance (for Old School)
    * 2003: Best On-Screen Team (with Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn for Old School)
    * 2004: Best Comedic Performance (for Elf)
    * 2005: Best Comedic Performance (for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy)
    * 2005: Best On-Screen Team (with Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy)
    * 2005: Best Musical Performance (with Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carell for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy)
    * 2007: Best Comedic Performance (for Blades of Glory)
    * 2007: Best Fight (for Blades of Glory)

Razzie Awards

Nominated:

    * 2005: Worst Actor for Bewitched, Kicking & Screaming and Land of the Lost

Satellite Awards

Nominated:

    * 2006: Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical (for Stranger Than Fiction)

Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards

Won:

    * 2007 Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards, Funniest Mo-fo
    * 2007 Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards, Most Viral Video

Teen Choice Awards

Won:

    * 2007: Choice Movie Actor - Comedy for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Blades of Glory

Nominated:

    * 2004: Choice Comedian
    * 2004: Choice Movie Actor - Comedy for Elf
    * 2005: Choice Comedian
    * 2005: Choice Movie Actor - Comedy for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Kicking & Screaming
    * 2005: Choice Movie Hissy Fit for Kicking & Screaming
    * 2005: Choice Movie Rumble for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    * 2005: Choice Movie Sleazebag for Kicking & Screaming
    * 2007: Choice Comedian
    * 2007: Choice Movie Chemistry (with Jon Heder), for Blades of Glory
    * 2007: Choice Movie Dance (with Jon Heder), for Blades of Glory
    * 2007: Choice Movie Hissy Fit for Blades of Glory
    * 2008: Choice Comedian
    * 2008: Choice Movie Actor - Comedy for Semi-Pro
    * 2009: Choice Movie Actor - Comedy for Land of the Lost

Tony Awards

Nominated:

    * 2009: Best Special Theatrical Event (for You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush)

Filmography
Year Movie Role U.S. gross
1995 Bucket of Blood Young Man Made for TV
Criminal Hearts Newscaster
1997 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Mustafa US$53.9 million
Men Seeking Women Al
1998 A Night at the Roxbury Steve Butabi US$30.3 million
The Thin Pink Line Darren Clark
1999 Superstar Sky Corrigan/God US$30.6 million
Dick Bob Woodward US$6.2 million
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Mustafa US$206 million
The Suburbans Gil US$11,130
2000 The Ladies Man Lance DeLune US$13.6 million
Drowning Mona Cubby the Funeral Director US$15.4 million
2001 Zoolander Mugatu US$45.2 million
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly US$30.1 million
2002 Boat Trip Brian's Boyfriend US$8.6 million
2003 Old School Frank "the Tank" Ricard US$74.6 million
Elf Buddy US$173.4 million
2004 Melinda and Melinda Hobie US$3.8 million
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy Ron Burgundy US$84.1 million
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie Ron Burgundy
Starsky & Hutch Big Earl US$88.2 million
Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party Himself
2005 The Producers Franz Liebkind US$19.4 million
Wedding Crashers Chazz Reinhold US$209.2 million
Winter Passing Corbit US$101,228
Bewitched Jack Wyatt/Darrin US$62.3 million
Kicking & Screaming Phil Weston US$52.6 million
The Wendell Baker Story Dave Bix US$127,144
2006 Stranger Than Fiction Harold Crick US$40.1 million
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Ricky Bobby US$148.2 million
Curious George Ted/The Man in the Yellow Hat US$58.3 million
2007 Blades of Glory Chazz Michael Michaels US$118.2 million
2008 Semi-Pro Jackie Moon US$33.4 million
Step Brothers Brennan Huff US$101.1 million
2009 Land of the Lost Dr. Rick Marshall US$49.4 million
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Craig McDermott US$15.1 million
SpongeBob's Truth or Square Himself
2010 The Other Guys Detective Allen Gamble
MegaMind MegaMind
Television work

    * Saturday Night Live (cast member from 1995–2002, host in 2005 and 2009)
    * Cow and Chicken (1997–2001) (voice in various episodes)
    * Saturday Night Live: Presidential Bash 2000 (2000)
    * Family Guy (as the Black Knight)(2001)
    * Undeclared (guest star)
    * The Oblongs (2001–2002) (voice)
    * King of the Hill (as Coach Lucas) (1999) (voice)
    * The Tom Green Show (guest star)
    * Family Guy (as himself) (2005)
    * The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show (guest star)
    * Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (voiceover and guest)
    * Eastbound & Down (BMW Dealership Owner Ashley Schaeffer)
    * You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush
    * Man vs. Wild (guest star)
    * Live with Regis and Kelly (co-host)
    * 63rd Tony Awards (2009), 2009 MTV Movie Awards and 2009 TV Land Awards
    * The Merrick & Rosso Show (as himself) (2009)
    * SpongeBob SquarePants (as himself)(2009)
    * Strangers with Candy (2000)
    * Funny or Die Presents (2010)
    * Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job (2010)
    * 30 Rock (2010)

Salary

    * Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) $20,000,000
    * Bewitched (2005) $20,000,000
    * Kicking & Screaming (2005) $20,000,000
    * Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) $6,900,000

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g30/jbravo_uknowit/ferrell.jpg
http://i401.photobucket.com/albums/pp93/blistik/thCowbell2.gif