Iced Canal

The water in the canal was lowered by a couple feet recently. I don't know why, but the exposed rocks on the shoreline creates a lunar edging. Then the canal has frozen over adding to the barrenness. With a bright early morning sun, just an inch over the horizon, behind your back, one sees the above.

In his book on Cezanne's composition, Erle Loran writes about "the funnel effect and the hole in the picture." Funnels and holes are endemic to canal paintings. Cezanne avoided funnels and holes by spanning "construction lines" and warm planes that pulled everything to the picture plane. I might be just "tasteless" (Loran's word) enough to not hide the funnels and holes as much. I like the front to back depth of a canal scene. A side view of the canal is not as interesting. Maybe I should publish the image upside-down. Then it wouldn't look like a frozen canal.

Two more fields of nothing

Best wishes to everyone for a happy and productive new year!

It hasn't stopped snowing since we have been up here. I keep peering into snowy fields. They look like nothing much, but deceptively a lot is happening (no pun intended). These are 8x10 on uart paper.

I am reading a book called Cezanne's Composition by Erle Loran. He says some intriguing things, such as that what Cezanne said, in his famous comments to Emile Bernard, and how he painted, do not agree. I have always wondered about Cezanne the theorist vs. Cezanne the painter. I will follow Loran's lead that one should only use the paintings as guides.