I have cross country pictures and drug testing for most of the day today, and right now I'm recovering from our morning practice (some hot coffee sounds good, although I'm gonna be stuck at camp with out it on Thursday, instant coffee?). I consider running a real art form, we make strong bodies that can carry us through woods and cross the country side. My legs have been giving me trouble lately and I'm not in as a great as shape as I would have liked, but sometimes its good just think "It's a gift one can run at all".
So what am I working on now you ask? Well, still getting used to blogging of course. And I started to paint country images on this white cotton dress I found (and blogged about) a while back. It has a very folk art quality to it and I think it's gonna be neat when it's all done. All of the images are stuff I've seen and has a special meaning to it from the country. I think it's almost like quilting. But with paint.
I went to the library yesterday and picked out a ton of art books (as usual) one of them is about Monet spending time in this garden, Giverny, to study and paint, it's really lovely. The images of his paintings and him walking around the garden are really inspiring, one quote reads:
"His life is what he paints; and what he paints is his life.... He only wants one thing, to immerse himself in colour...He aores the whole beauty of nature, which he sees around him and which tortures him, for that is what he is so anxious to translate into paint - the innumerable, ever -changing beauties of nature."
The book tells of his experiences there and his struggle to capture not only the subject but the very air around it.
I know how he feels. I wish I could spend all my time studying the beautiful colors and lights and greenery around me to translate into paintings. That is the life I want to life when it comes to art. I think when ever I paint, draw, or really create anything it's to honor the subject, the idea, the emotions behind it. There are SO many things I want to paint and create, but I am bound by few supplies and time constraints. Just as I sit here, the sunlight bouncing off the grass in the breeze is like a Walt Whitman poem in the form, how beautiful could it be in a painting! I've often prayed to God asking if I could ever capture the beauty He's created in the world. If I could have a career where I could be given the resources to study the lights and colors around me I could live in peace. I have one canvas left, it stops me from painting when all I think "I better use this well!".
With the white dress I'm not trying very hard, just painting what comes into memory. I really want to do some outdoor painting now, but soon I have to head back to the school for drug testing.
It's so lovely out.
Peace.
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