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Showing posts from October, 2016

Going to bed for winter and discovering Paul Nash

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Dear Monty, Now you have been put to bed for the Winter and the digital door to Longmeadow closed, and the dogs retreat to their beds and blankets, I have to look elsewhere for inspiration. Fires and flames - Autumn burns here from yellows, reds, oranges - eventually to dry twigs. I have just watched BBC4's War Artists - presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon - this episode was about the work of Paul Nash. Nash is a painter I have not investigated beyond a few of his wartime landscapes. I fell in love with his early and later pastoral landscapes - seen by me for the first time. Although not mentioned by Graham-Dixon, I could see the influence of Samuel Palmer and Blake in his work. I could also see cross fertilisation from Ben Nicholson - all artists I admire and am influenced by. I identified with Graham Dixon's interpretation of Nash's work, particularly the idea of the endowment of spirituality into his unpeopled landscapes. They are statements of the spirit.

Garden

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Dear Monty, I notice that gardening is being promoted as being good for both physical and mental health, now while I agree with this - I do think it should be pointed out to prospective garden makers - that it can also be fraught with anxiety. My anxiety fluctuates like the seasons. Yesterday the light was such that the structure of the garden - even a harmonious rhythm, spoke peace to my inner man, but today it seems to have gone ! How can that be? Is light playing tricks with me? Unlike you I do not have much flower colour in the garden, most of the colour is provided by leaves, and I suppose this may be the problem. Nevertheless - how good it is when it does work - Yesterday was a moment of heaven. I tried to capture it in a sketch and photograph - words cannot describe why I felt so at ease with it. Paul.