And suddenly as by miracle, before the awe-stricken eyes of the child, the peeled clementine turns into a candied fruit!
- Oh there is a blue acid drop in it, mum! May I eat it first?"
Sugar mummy smiles.
Well, I have to admit I'm comforted knowing that even you have days where you spend all afternoon working on something that doesn't turn out too! (Fortunately, your 2nd one worked out just fine!)
Transposition is the crucial word for all artists. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein on this point simply wrote: "Painting is a transposition of reality". More than that, the previous landscape and today's still life are transfiguration of the real life. It reminds me of the same phenomenon in "View of Toledo" by El Greco. In Turner of course too.
Dear Julian, I wonder what "didn't quite work out"? If only more people could admit their efforts came to nought sometime!
Anyway the peeled clementine rescued the day beautifully.
Winter is upon us here, frosty morning in my little garden.
Anna.
P.S. Of course I must now look up "View of Toledo"!
Your "didn't work out" is probably a glorious try and better than most artist's best. This one is yummy and the green fields made me want to buy a ticket. Makes my day when I open your Postcard.
You have , Julian, at the moment, the same radical pictorial metamorphosis as Cezanne, Van Gogh or Morandi, after their early period. The difficulty is to be in tune with that evolution. I feel you are in your transient state of artistic "Chrysalis". It is a marvellous moment to live (even though conflicting); without reserve. Then, you will live a wonderful period of pictorial liberation. This is the wish of all genuine artists.
This is getting very interesting, people who live and breathe painting, weather they are actually painting or not, will get very stimulated by Alain's comment.
Finding pictorial liberation, if only for a period of time until the next turn in the road, must be akin to finding the proverbial pot of gold under the rainbow.
Unfortunately, the old proverb reflects only on our oh so human, persistence of measuring fulfilment and happiness in terms of material riches. Not quite what I tried to say!!
Anna.
I love your work!! What kind of artificial light do you use? What follows is not a plug (literally or figuratively), but I have found some artificial light that seems as close to natural as it gets and thought perhaps it might interest you to check it out. The company is called Solux.net. They do a lot of museum lighting. (I don't have a financial interest in them, although at this point, they might have an interest in me!....Their lighting isn't cheap.)
12 Comments