Friday, March 28, 2014

Vanderbilt and Dean



A couple days ago I wrote that I was working on a 'large landscape,' a 12x24 oil of the corner of Vanderbilt and Dean in Brooklyn.  The long format leads to some interesting compositional details, such as balancing the yellow sign on the left with the building opening on the right, the three cars and the the three buildings, the repetition of the arch, etc. , stuff that's always there, but not visible.

Which leads me to:  I was reading Seamus Heaney again.  In the second of the 'Squarings' poems, he wrote, "Make your study the unregarded floor."  I wondered when I read that, Can I interpret that to mean, paint what we depend upon but do not see.  The ground.  Painters paint foregrounds, backgrounds, middlegrounds, and directly upon 'grounds,' like canvases, and we walk upon the ground, the roadway, and seldom see it.  Tillich called God the 'ground of being'.  I could go on, but I will stop.

4 comments:

thor wickstrom said...

very articulate. both the painting and the writing. i might have to follow this blog.

Bob Lafond said...

Thor, Thank you. You have no excuses now that it's reachable via FB.

Eden Compton Studio said...

I like the composition and mood - it feels like Sunday morning. Nice drawings you posted as well!

Bob Lafond said...

Thank you! I will be re-photographing it in a couple days. It was still wet when I shot it.