A Wedge of Sky

A different kind of urban scape this time:  A small painting, just for the heck of it, of the plaza in front of the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene in the town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence.  It was like a stage setting with a wedge of sky.  6x8 oil on gessobord.

A Street in Provence

The main street in St. Maximin la Ste. Baume in Provence, France.  9x12 oil on canvas.

Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

This is a 9x12 pen, brush, ink, ink wash, and pastel drawing of an alleyway in a small town in Provence called Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.  I was there five years ago.  I love the narrow streets and old stone buildings of France.

French Alleyway

A 9x12 oil of an alleyway in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence.

Arnheim writes, "For David Hume's notebook: One evening a young boy somewhere in the country banged with a stick against a telegraph pole at the very moment when all the lights went out along the Eastern seaboard because of a power failure.  He ran home to confess to his mother that he was to blame for the blackout."

Imagine a Street in Provence

A drawing and a painting of the same site, both 9x12, looking down Rue General de Gaulle, Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence.

This week I found an interesting book, Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest by Rudolf Arnheim.  It's my new daily reading since finishing Walden.   The book consists of notebook selections.  He writes contrarily:

'The irritating notion that the beholder should complete through his imagination what the artist left undone is refuted by the sumi paintings, so fond of incomplete objects.  Try to complete the rocks whose base is lost in the mist or to populate the "empty" spaces with more rocks or woods, and you will find that your clumsy moves destroy the delicate balance and thus the meaning.'

Despite the Arnheim quote,  I leave a lot to the imagination in the two pictures above.

Side Ways

This could have been done more tightly, but that's not what I am after. Just a quick glance down a side street on a sunny day. No traffic. Little noise. Everyone is somewhere else. 9x12 pastel on pastelmat.

Alleyway

Another view down a side street in a small town in Provence. They are to me more dreamscape than cityscape. 9x12 pastel on colourfix suede.

Street and Houses

Sometimes it's good to do some non-natural images. This is a side street in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, a small town in Provence. I was there in June. I think I will do a series of these views. 9x12 pastel on colourfix suede.