A Suggestion

This painting has reached that stage where I can add more detail, or repaint it, or just leave alone (at least for now).  I'm going to leave it alone.  My goal is to suggest more than is actually there in the painting.  The site is the view up the hill behind the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.  The painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

Old Tree on the Clark Hill

On the high hill above the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA there are a number of fascinating old trees.  This is one of them with the shadows of another. Given that they take such a beating during winter, one has to wonder how they ever grew there to begin with.  They form interesting patterns with the sky and mountains.  This is a view north and the mountains are in Vermont.  The painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

What I Saw and the News

One day last week, even though it was late in the afternoon, overcast, and getting darker, the sun kept appearing for seconds at a time at long intervals.  I walked up the dirt road hoping to see something even if for the briefest moment.  This is what I saw.

One more quote from the book What Painting Is by James Elkins, which doesn't have anything directly to do with paint, but it does have to do with art and the world:  "It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."  It's a line from the poem "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" by William Carlos Williams.

Mud and Transcendence

Another view of Rue Celony in Aix.  The experience of Rue Celony has to be contemplated in paint over time.  It's not something I can absorb and understand all at once.

Here's another interesting passage from the James Elkins book What Painting Is:  "What matters in painting is pushing the mundane toward the instance of transcendence.  The effect is sublimation, or distillation: just as water heats up and then suddenly disappears, so paint gathers itself together and then suddenly becomes something else -- an apparition hovering in the fictive space beyond the picture plane.  The boiling point, just before the substance evaporates, is the crucial moment, and it is vexed."

By the word 'mundane' Elkins means that paint stuff, which comes in tubes, and is formless when spread on a palette, and is like mud.

What Painting Is

Yesterday afternoon I also did a second painting of the mountains from the top of Sheep Hill: this one a 9x12 oil on a linen sheet.  As I placed and moved the paint around on the linen surface, I thought of the book that I've started to re-read,  What Painting Is by James Elkins.   He writes, "Paint is a cast made of the painter's movements, a portrait of the painter's body and thoughts.  The muddy moods of oil paints are the painter's muddy humors, and its brilliant transformation are the painter's unexpected discoveries.  Painting is an unspoken and largely uncognized dialogue, where paint speaks silently in masses and colors and the artist responds in moods."

Mountains, Mountains

This afternoon's weather was delightful, so I went to the top of Sheep Hill to paint my favorite view of the mountains, Greylock, Prospect, Stony Ledge and the Hopper, which is not a mountain but a distinct space in between the mountains.  Recently, I was in Provence where Mont Ste. Victoire seems so high because it stands alone, but Mount Greylock is actually a few feet higher, 3,317 vs. 3,491.  This painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

Another Angle

Believe it or not, but he told me that he's smiling.  Actually, he didn't tell me any such thing.  He just wanted to pose from a different angle.

Face Paint

You're probably getting tired of seeing this guy by now, and it's only been three portraits.  He keeps pestering me now to paint his portrait.  I have to admit that there are so many variations possible for a portrait.  So I can't say what will happen next.

Hat On

My sitter came by for a few minutes yesterday.  He didn't stay long, and kept his hat on, so I had to paint quickly.  Funny how this time the painting came much faster.

Figure Painting

It's always good to paint different subjects, even if one prefers landscapes or cityscapes.  I continue to paint the figure from life as part of a weekly drawing group.  This 12x9 oil on linen sketch is from our last session this week.

Headed My Way

In the last few days I spent a lot of time painting this guy's portrait.  His head kept growing and shrinking.  I eventually had to end this particular sitting at the point you see here.  However, he was nice enough to agree to come back for another painting.  I am indeed happy that I didn't chase him away.

Same Spot in Aix

The top painting I did while in Aix in September.  It represents the Jas de Bouffan, the mansion acquired by Paul Cezanne's father in 1859.  It's a 9x12 oil on multimedia board.

The other painting was done by Cezanne in 1887-90.  What is interesting about the Cezanne painting (besides being a great painting) is that it is the only painting considered to be of the front or north side of the Jas de Bouffan.  All of the other fifty or so oils and watercolors of the Jas de Bouffan Cezanne did at the back of the building.  I'm not convinced that the Cezanne painting represents the front of the building.  The balcony and main ground floor entrance are not visible though Cezanne always took liberties.  But I like the idea that I could have been standing in the same spot as Cezanne when I did my painting.

Aix Intersection

This is not a view of Rue Celony.  The painting depicts where Rue Aude intersects with Rue Espariat in the old section of Aix en Provence.  The sun makes an enormous difference in how these ancient buildings appear.  It is a 12x16 oil on panel.

Rich Rue and Squeezed Cars

Another view of Rue Celony in Aix-en-Provence.  This narrow street is rich in views.  People in Aix squeeze cars into the tiniest parking spots using great patience and many backward and forward movements.  However, most cars that I saw had tell-tale signs of this activity.

The End of Landscape

Rue Celony again.  It is a narrow street that pedestrians and vehicles use as a shortcut to get to the old part of Aix.  Fortunately there are metal barriers to separate people from machines.  This painting is a 12x16 oil on panel.

Here are a couple interesting quotes from the Alex Danchev biography of Paul Cezanne:

'Asked why he was so fond of ultramarine, he [Cezanne] replied: "Because the sky is blue."'

'"With Cezanne landscape itself comes to an end," proclaimed the artist Robert Motherwell in the 1940's.'

Visual Time

When in Aix, I would see this view every day, illuminated differently of course depending upon the location of the sun and clouds.  This is just one slice of visual time.

Up in Aix

This little 9x12 oil painting is the one I prize the most of those I did while in Aix.  I took the bus out to Le Tholonet with all my gear, and climbed up the path to a spot where surely Cezanne once stood.  I could hardly contain my excitement.

Rue Celony

This 12x16 oil on panel depicts on the left side a view down Rue Celony in Aix-en-Provence.  If one were to continue for another mile and a half or so, the Jas de Bouffan would be on the left.  But I couldn't help being impressed by this magnificent building and its diagonal shadow.