Sunday, February 15, 2009

What's your inspiration?

I love the landscape of Newfoundland. It changes constantly with the weather and seasons. It can be harsh, silent, raging, colourful, drab and a hundred other adjectives. Even thought I have this close connection to place, I rarely paint landscape. I think it goes back to having an intense relationship to it, and never feeling that what is produced actually lives up to the ideal in your head.

For me, when I am away from a place I love, I think about it often. I am most at home in the landscape at my summer place in a small outport (fishing village) three hours from St. John's. Our house is on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, so the sea and all its elements feature prominently in this landscape. I can sit on my patio and just observe the world moving in front of me. Sometimes these thoughts are recorded in words which later may translate into artwork.




Reflection

sun sparkles,
pin pricks of light agitate,
calmness escapes
through broken patterns,
surface celebrations,
marked by ebb and flow
of life rhythms.



It is the sensual appeal of landscape that I most respond to- the sounds, smells and visual aspects. When I try to paint landscape realistically, I produce very boring work. This is the scene across from our patio as pictured above. I have seen it in hundreds of guises, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot do it justice. This piece was created from memory for my husband. (Yes I do have a mauve wall in my summer home! I love purple in all its guises.) Almost all the rock in the area is "pink"slate. I can't get away from the colour.



This is a recent collage (10 x 30) of the same scene created again from memory and completed in three hours. I had fun doing it, I didn't feel I was creating a great work of art, and I think it does capture all elements of the landscape. Go figure! It now sits in my newly renovated bathroom, whose colour scheme is inspired by the same landscape. The moral of the tale... lighten up and have fun creating.

6 comments:

p said...

i like your poem, its very soothing and matches your work. the collage is really nice! bet it looks great in your new room :)
ps i hope you get rid of that verification..it NEVER WORKS for me, the letters are never there the firs time and i have to click and click...unless you are getting spam maybe try not having it? :(

Karen Stiehl Osborn said...

How interesting that you have renovated a bathroom based on inspiration from your landscape! That is exactly what I am in the middle of doing. Blue/walls with whitewashed cupboards and shelves filled with seashells and coral and driftwood. In my mind it will be a soothing spa feeling when I am done.

P.S. The verification letters weren't there the first time for me either.

M said...

Well now. I didn't even know I had verification letters. I guess I'll have to root around and find our why I do. It's terrible to be this "slow". Any hints on how to solve this problem?

M said...

So, I found it under settings and now I've solved the problem. Thanks for letting me know.

Mary Buek said...

Margaret, love your summer home; how warm does it get there? Also love both paintings, but the collage has my heart.

M said...

Mary
In June we start to get our summer temps which would be in the high sixties, and moving into the 70's as we move into July and August. The weather is quite pleasant-never too hot.

Of course, it can be very unpredictable where we are on the ocean. One day it might be shorts weather and the next your fall jacket. We always have something to talk about!