Monday, January 6, 2020

Grey Outside the Window


Sometimes I just like grey.  The trees in winter all blend into each other forming a mass of grey.  This is a view looking out of the window from the empty studio. 12 x 9 inches.  Pencil on paper.

Renoir told his son Jean that at twenty he "was already aware that a few pencil strokes are worth more than any number of theories..."  This was the explanation he offered to justify why he didn't follow up an invitation to meet again with the landscape painter Diaz in Paris. "We would have exchanged ideas and discussed theories."  His first encounter with Diaz happened when Renoir had started to paint out-of-doors in the Fontainebleau Forest.  Diaz appeared just in time to save him from being beat up by a group of punks.  In this context Renoir's excuse for avoiding Diaz is weak, but his words about pencil strokes are still true.  Pencil strokes can be a way of searching without theorizing.

No comments: