Still Life

Still -         devoid of or abstaining from motion
                 quiet, subdued, muted, calm, tranquil

Life -        1. a principle or force that is considered to underlie               the distinctive quality of animate beings
                  2. one or more aspects of the process of living

Still Life -  a picture consisting predominantly of inanimate objects

Still.     Life.     It's easy to understand the combination of the two words to mean still -- there's life. Or life that seems not to move -- such as a motionless praying mantis or sloth. But it seemed incongrous that a painting of inanimate objects should be called still life. Then I read that in ancient Egypt, it was believed food and other objects depicted in paintings adorning the tombs would become real in the afterlife.

Here is a list of titles of a few famous paintings:

Still Life with Bowl of Citrons  by Giovanna Garzoni
Vase of Flowers with a Curtain by Jacques de Gheyn II
Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber by Juan Sánchez Cotán
Still Life with Pie, Silver Ewer and Crab by Willem Claeszoon Heda
Still Life with Fruit, Flowers, Glasses and Lobster by Jan Davidsz. de Heem
Still-Life with Apples and Grapes by Claude Monet
Irises by Vincent Van Gogh
Apples, Peaches, Pears and Grapes by Paul Cezanne

Such ordinary things! Perhaps objects in your home could be the subject of a still life -- a candlestick on a sideboard, a stack of books by a rocking chair, tomatoes and a bottle of olive oil. What would Cezanne or Van Gogh or Monet see if they came to our houses? What do we overlook every day?

I like the editorial review of The Magic of Things:




Of painting's enduring genres, it may be the still life that offers the most brazen opportunities for virtuoso flourish, and that most closely approximates painting itself, as an art of arrangement of color, texture and light. Glistening dew drops on flower petals, contorted reflections of light on glass goblets and silver dishes, candied sweets heaped up in Chinese porcelain, the textures of fur, cloth, metal and bone--the rendering of such objects demands of an artist not only skill but an instinct for the thingness of things.

But how often do we really see the vase of flowers or the bowl of fruit, or a cabbage or a cucumber? I would like to pay attention the way the artist must. I would like to notice how light and shadows play with color. I would like to notice the dew drops glisten. I would like to open my eyes.


For your viewing pleasure, click here for  Google Images of Still Life Paintings
And may we all see as the artist sees, and all discover the magic of things.
 

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Seventy-Seven Shades of Gray

Have you ever heard that Van Gogh wrote to Theo he had discovered seventy-seven shades of gray when he was in Provence?  I've been trying to find the passage all  morning, but I did find a copy of an article "The Uncolor Solution" I had saved in 2003. It was from the online May 1st New York Times, and it suggested we look at gray as more than just a dismal color. That writer, Marco Pasanella, listed driftwood, moon rocks,  mist, and Tiffany spoons as examples.

So what can we find, if we look and pay attention? When I stepped outside, it had just stopped raining. I looked around. Specks of the color were in tree bark and branches, the brick pavers we drive over each day, and certain leaves had a gray-green cast. That brown squirrel that scoots across the fence line is really brown and gray. And how about fish, and all those feathers of birds?

Then I did a little research on the many quotes of the artist. It was clear that I had missed so very much.

"...There are but three fundamental colors -- red,, yellow, and blue. Composites are orange, green, and purple. By adding black and some white, one gets the endless variety of grays -- red-gray, yellow-gray, blue-gray, green-gray, orange-gray, violet-gray.

It is impossible to say, for instance, how many green-grays there are; there is an endless variety...The colorist is the person who knows at once how to analyze a color, when it sees it in nature, and can say, for instance: that green-gray is yellow with black and blue, etc. In other words, someone who know how to find the grays of nature on their palette."
Extract from a letter from Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo written July 31, 1882

And this one:

"The very broad-fronted houses here are set among oak trees of a superb bronze. Tones in the moss of gold-green, in the ground of reddish or bluish or yellowish dark lilac-grays, tones of inexpressible purity in the green of the little cornfields, tones of black in the wet tree trunks, standing out against the golden rain of swirling, teeming, autumn leaves, which hang in loose clumps -- as if they had been blown there, loose, and with the light filtering through them -- from the poplars, the birches, the limes and the apple trees."
Extract from a letter to Theo November 2, 1883

So if I go back outside, what else can I find in the tree bark and branches and bricks and leaves? I'm sure they will look different in varied  light of morning, noon, night. Let the artist within be inspired by our Master Artist of All Things.

I hope you will take a moment to click on this link: A Tribute to Vincent van Gogh . Be sure your sound is enabled.

Let us look. Let us see.



 Labels:  Vincent van Gogh, See, Gray. Pay Attention

Florida Woods

On a recent afternoon,  I was fortunate enough to take a ride through the woods with some of my family. A few years ago this was a regular occurrence, but now it is rare, so of course, I appreciate it more than I ever did then. I hope and pray I am getting wiser about living in the moment.   

I tried to pay attention.

 But the more I saw, the more I knew I didn't see.

Labels:  See, woods. moment