Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Making Lemonade


Rx:  
Let the Sun Shine In


On the fourth day of the workshop we contended with gray skies and with a stubborn mist. We were at the Prieure d'Orsan, and not everyone painted. Bruce had to leave for home after making a really nice drawing. One of us didn't feel so well, and another stepped up as nurse. Another decided to draw, instead of painting.

This left Nick, Jon, and me to essay some sort of a souvenir in oil.

We established headquarters under a marvelously tight canopy of leaves, seen in this photo from Jon. Nick's on your right, and I'm on the left.



The motif, one I've both drawn and painted, is of the turreted priory, seen down an allee between hedges. You can just make out the buildings in this photo (below) by Jon, looking toward the motif.
 


As you will readily see, the trees offered us a very satisfactory roof, but also made our canvases as dark as pitch.
Because everyone was working (or not) independently, and because I wasn't demonstrating, I decided to let the sun shine in. Enough of this gray, moody day!  

I summoned my imagination, while still under the trees, and transported myself to the sunny South of France. I kept the lead-in, but made it a road. Otherwise, I just let my imagination wander where it might. This, with a little tickling since I've been home, is where I landed.




So do remember, when wind and weather conspire against you, that you have an imagination. Use it. I had a lovely afternoon in the South of France-----you can too. 

4 comments:

  1. You forgot to say it was a bit chilly too! Imagination is an interesting subject, in all my reading I can't remember having seen anything about it that grabbed me. The ability to move beyond one's self and one's location is a fabulous thing...

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    1. Jon....if you were able to imagine that an artist could push colored dirt around on a flat surface by using a stick with animal hairs stuck to its end and, by so doing, that he could persuade those around him that the flat surface had become the three-dimensional reality of a place a thousand miles away, you would already have made the greatest imaginative leap of all.
      The rest is kid's stuff.

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  2. Was this board toned before painting? The overall values seem so light. I can't detect the usual red oxide base.

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    1. On my monitor (and in the painting) one can see it....especially in the near part of the wall on the right, and in the central part of the right tree.

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