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markburgess.bsky.social
Mark Burgess
@markburgess.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.4K following 1.7K posts
Artist and writer
http://www.markburgess.co.uk
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markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

19. Franz Marc, The Foxes, 1913, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.
A painting of two foxes overlapped or entwined; dark red, white and black. One fox's head is quite clearly defined. The background has colours of green, blue, pink and black. The whole painting is fractured with blocks and lines somewhat in the cubist manner or like a kaleidoscope.
February 12, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Mark Burgess
runningastronomer.bsky.social
Happy international women and girls in science day! 🧪🔭☄️👩🏻‍🔬 In today's edition, I'll be meeting students, writing grants and doing associate dean-y stuff. All while consuming caffeine from my @starxiv.bsky.social podcast mug 😍
February 11, 2026 at 12:23 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
#TinyJoys
February 11, 2026 at 11:09 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

18. William Nicholson, London Types - Bluecoat Boy, 1898
A square woodcut print with a bold design of solid black on buff paper. A bluecoat schoolboy - a pupil of Christ's Hospital school in London - is standing in the foreground in the sunlight. He wears the school uniform of a long coat, white bands, knee breeches and stockings. Behind him, in the shadows, are two of his schoolfellows. The only colour is the yellow of the boys' stockings and a little pink in their lips and cheeks.
February 11, 2026 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Mark Burgess
paulsingh.bsky.social
Let’s clarify this.

Steven Bannon takes Epstein‘s money to fund far right activities in Europe which Nigel Farage attends & benefits from but the UK media have decided that this isn’t worth mentioning or investigating.
February 3, 2026 at 7:15 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
*Checks weather forecast*
lbflyawayhome.bsky.social Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 2d
Today is National Umbrella day
‘The Ladybird ABC, 1959’
Artist: G Robinson
Illustration for an ABC book showing a yellow traditional umbrella against a pale teal background. The hand-cut, sans serif typeface is evocative of early school days
February 10, 2026 at 11:09 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

17. Rex Whistler, Design for stage version of Pride & Prejudice, 1936
A design for a drop curtain for the 1936 play version of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. An open book lies on a background of fruit and flowers. The title page lists details of the play and the frontispiece shows three young women walking in the grounds of a country house.
February 10, 2026 at 9:48 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

16. Hans Holbein the Younger, Jane Seymour, 1536-7, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
A portrait of a woman in Tudor dress. Her headdress and gown are richly embroidered with gold thread and she wears a lot of fine jewellery. Her hands are loosely clasped in front of her and her expression is a little tight-lipped, as if she is not entirely comfortable with the artist's gaze.
February 9, 2026 at 10:39 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

15. Manet, Asparagus, 1880, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
A single pale, slightly purplish, spear of asparagus lies on the edge of a marble table. The brushwork is lively and unfussy.
February 8, 2026 at 10:19 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

14. Renoir, La Première Sortie, 1876-1877, National Gallery, London.
A young woman is on her first night out at the theatre. She sits forward eagerly, enthralled by the whole scene.
February 7, 2026 at 7:16 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

13. Thomas Rowlandson, Vauxhall Gardens, 1785
Print showing large crowd gathered before the orchestra pavilion in Vauxhall Gardens. Various people have been identified, for example: Dr Johnson and James Boswell are seated at a table eating; right of centre, the Prince of Wales (later George IV).
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Mark Burgess
mclees-fiona.bsky.social
BBC Two Wales screened a new documentary about Gwen John last night, now on iPlayer. It features contributions from curator of our new exhibition Lucy Wood, as well as from my amazing paintings conservation colleague Rachel Beard and also a tiny bit from me! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Two - Keep the World Away - Finding Gwen John
Sian Eleri uncovers the real Gwen John, now revered as Wales's greatest female artist.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 6, 2026 at 8:48 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

12. George Stubbs, Whistlejacket, c.1762, National Gallery, London.
A portrait of a beautiful young bay racehorse with a pale flowing tail. He is rearing on his hind legs and giving the viewer a side-eye. The background is a completely plain buff colour emphasizing the horse's liveliness and form.
February 5, 2026 at 9:05 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
A new word enters the lexicon.
drbibliomane.bsky.social Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 8d
Just found a rather wonderful typo in my slides for my lecture on the end of Pride and Prejudice:
Referring to the elopement of Lydia and Wickham, I meant to type "shotgun marriage"
But I've typed "shotfun marriage"--
and actually that's not wrong, and Austen scholars might need that term!
Still from the BBC Pride and Prejudice: Wickham, looking handsome in his red military coat, and Lydia in her muslin gown and bonnet. Both are beaming.
February 4, 2026 at 5:42 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
Artless crook-pated bum-bailey WLTM frothy motley-minded fustilarian. 😄
maaiked.bsky.social Maaike Dirkx 🎨 👀 @maaiked.bsky.social · 8d
Brush up your Shakespeare. 🙂
February 4, 2026 at 2:48 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

11. George Clausen, Morning in November, 1922.
A misty November morning. The sun shines through some trees and upon a house. In the foreground there's an old plough. A road, with a ditch to one side, runs into the blue distance.
February 4, 2026 at 7:29 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
What an extraordinarily beautiful thing. And strange.
drjeball.bsky.social Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 9d
A #Roman glass bowl in cobalt blue with white irregular swirls; it was made about 2000 years ago, probably in Italy, but ended up in a C1st AD grave in Roman Britain

#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientRome
February 3, 2026 at 8:54 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
Maigret Jnr. on the case.
matthighton.bsky.social Matthew Highton @matthighton.bsky.social · 9d
Breaking: The number 1 detective in Paris has been dispatched to Elon Musk's offices.
February 3, 2026 at 12:35 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

10. Carl Larsson, The Kitchen, c. 1898, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.
A girl of about twelve and her sister of about three are churning butter in a Swedish kitchen of the late nineteenth century. There is a cast iron range stove with pots and pans, a white kitten and a red chair. A breeze blows in through the open window.
February 3, 2026 at 6:46 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Plus ça change.
drbeard79.bsky.social Dr Andrew McInnes @drbeard79.bsky.social · 10d
Reading Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey and she is refreshingly and presciently clear that the very rich are all deranged, psychotic sadists
February 2, 2026 at 11:24 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Reposted without prejudice.
drbibliomane.bsky.social Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 11d
Somebody already did this for 2025 (& I would give credit if I could find the post). But in fact January deserves its own censure from Lady Catherine de Bourgh:

I take no leave of you, January. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.
February 2, 2026 at 11:04 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

9. Nicholas Hilliard, Self-portrait aged 30, 1577, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
A miniature self-portrait painting showing a handsome young man with curly dark brown hair and a beard. He wears a black cap decorated with a gold acorn, a white ruff and a black doublet. The man's gaze is assured and directly at the viewer. Gold lettering gives the date of 1577 and the age of the sitter as 30.
February 2, 2026 at 11:01 AM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

8. Vermeer, The Guitar Player, Kenwood House, London.
A young woman plays a guitar. She is wearing a pale yellow gown edged with ermine. She is looking off to the side and her expression is cheerful, as if she is enjoying playing for whoever she is looking at. Her hair is in ringlets which it is not difficult to imagine moving with the liveliness of her playing and their form is echoed by the tree in the painting on the wall behind her.
February 1, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Mark Burgess
akasci.bsky.social
New FCC filing by SpaceX for a constellation of million data center satellites for AI 😮

Even if it could be done, what will this do to #astronomy and #space debris?

Or is this yet another scam and grift scheme?

www.scribd.com/document/990...
More at fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/1159...
Image of the first page of the filing - SpaceX requests authority to launch and operate a constellation of satellites with unprecedented computing capacity to power advanced artificial intelligence (“AI”) models and the applications that rely on them. By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative cost and energy efficiency while significantly reducing the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centers. Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization—one that can harness the Sun’s full power—while supporting AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multi-planetary future amongst the stars SpaceX is designing its satellite system to accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI, machine learning, and edge omputing, where processing needs are already beginning to outpace terrestrial capabilities. To deliver the compute capacity required for large- scale AI inference and data center applications serving billions of users globally, SpaceX aims to deploy a system of up to one million satellites to operate within narrow orbital shells spanning up to 50 km each (leaving sufficient room to deconflict against other systems with comparable ambitions). This system will operate between 500 km and 2,000 km altitude ...
January 31, 2026 at 7:44 PM
markburgess.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

7. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Punchinello's Farewell to Venice, c. 1798, National Gallery of Art, Washington
A brown ink and wash drawing showing a group of punchinellos, all dressed in white with tall caps, saying a poignant farewell. There is also a young woman in a striped dressed and a disconsolate looking dog. A canal, a gondola and Venice are in the background.
January 31, 2026 at 7:53 AM