Springtime on the Georgia coast, and already the woods are melodious with the calls of the Painted Bunting scouts. How lovely - it is time to put out the white millet to greet them at the feeders.
Read MoreThe Space Between /
Walking this morning in brilliant sunshine in a Mediterranean pine forest was an exercise in delight. The amazingly intense blue sky above was the perfect foil for a myriad dancing greys of tree trunks that twisted and swayed in graceful coexistence. Beneath, the grey-green sheen of resinous shrubs seemed to reflect the light back upwards to the pines and complete the harmony with the bright green crowns of pine needles. Beneath, luminous pink and white touches of rock roses (cistus) were punctuated by the magenta spears of tiny wild gladioli.
Read MoreArt that Stands the Test of Time /
Every artist must at least occasionally have moments of doubt about whether work being created will stand the test of time or whether it will even be appreciated by other people. It is inevitable, I suppose, given that most creative ventures are fairly solitary. You work away at your desk, your potter's wheel, your easel, your sculpture table, your musical score, your ballet bar or whatever the work might require. Your vision and your passion, you hope, carry you forward to creating something that is good, worthwhile, meaningful to others. And something that will stand the test of time.
Read MoreRomanesque Frescoes /
One of the serendipitous bonuses of my explorations in winding Pyrenees valleys near Bordeneuve was a church not even listed clearly in the maps I was using: Notre Dame de Tramesaygues in Audressein. Two impetuous rivers join in their rush downstream, ultimately to swell the Garonne river, and the small village borders these tumbling waters. In fact,Tramesaygues means "between the waters' in patois. On the UNESCO world heritage site list, this 14th century Romanesque church is graced with some really wonderful frescoes in the entrance portico. Since they are roofed over by the bell tower, they are protected to an extent, and thus much more impressive.
Read MoreRomanesque Art in Ariège, France /
As so often happens, delicious coincidences have again come along to enhance life for me. When a fine day suddenly burst through from the clouds of rain and snow, I decided to give myself a break from silverpoint drawing at my wonderful artist's retreat perch at Bordeneuve, in Betchat in the French Pyrenees. My hostess, Noelle, extremely knowledgeable and a lover of all things natural, historic and beautiful in Ariège, confirmed that my plans for the day were good.
Read MoreThe Dialogue with White /
I recently finished reading Edmund de Waal’s wonderful new book, “The White Road, a Pilgrimage of Sorts” and it made me very much more aware of white and the role it plays in my life as an artist. De Waal went on a fascinating odyssey seeking out porcelain centers, history of porcelain and as he did in his previous book, “The Hare with Amber Eyes”, the whole story is interwoven with his own life as a potter in England.
Read MoreLandscapes /
The snow had fallen all night, but the morning dawned clear and sharp. To the south, as I topped the first rise of the hills, lay the Pyrenees, higher, more intricate in form and peak, more immense in span of horizon than I remembered. My second time as an artist in residence at Bordeneuve was beginning in beauty. Some of the peaks were blushed pink-apricot, others were subdued in greys and pearls. The foreground of rolling, energy-filled hills was their prelude, dark with winter filigree of trees. This massive display of seemingly timeless mountain ranges, so memorable, so old, so sacred and so wildly beautiful, left me with mixed emotions. I could understand why early man used the Pyrenees mountain caves and dwelt in these abodes close to their food sources and to their gods.
Read MoreAn Artist’s Lament: when American Express is not so Express /
Every artist can only devote a certain number of hours to art-making. Life is often full of problems that rob one of that precious time that one normally uses to create art. Increasingly, I resent such situations, as time is already short enough to work at something creative. So when I experience incompetence and ineptitude that cost me time and effort and also add stress, it is not good! A huge problem that has been on-going since June 2015 has been my seemingly “good idea” to enroll in American Express’ Auto-Pay programme so as not to have to worry about my monthly account when I am outside the United States. I started off diligently filling out the requisite forms on their Amex website. I found the form badly written and often malfunctioning. Eventually I invoked the live chat people to ensure that all was correctly done: “oh yes”, I was assured.
Read MoreThe Power of Line /
Ever since I started looking closely at drawings deemed “master drawings” in the first drawings exhibition held at the Louvre in 1962, I have been fascinated by the implications of the power of a line. No matter what period, Renaissance, Baroque, 17th or 19th century, the artist can say volumes merely by a line in a drawing. It does not even need to be a line that is perfect. Frequently lines that are re-drawn, adjusted and reinforced are extremely powerful and eloquent. The line can whisper and hint, it can assert, it can describe, it can evoke or imply. A line, in essence, can take on a life of its own, transmit it to the viewer and empower a dialogue between image drawn and the viewer that can be subtle and long-lasting.
Read MoreClose Focus - Art of the Small /
Amid the swirl of daily life, it has been hard to achieve any drawing. Nonetheless, I reminded myself that even doing tiny drawings is better than nothing. Then I remembered that quote from Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch", when Theo remarks: "To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it, look very close at what was close to hand and make it stand in for the whole."
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