Sunday, September 19, 2010

Ah, New Sights!


Sunset in Chaco Canyon,
Sept 14, 10, Judith


I was reading a newsletter this week by the artist Robert Genn, who urges his readers to try painting differently so that they can inform themselves about new ways to approach their canvases. [ www.robertgenn.com ] An art trip can do the same thing when you can get away. I just got back from a camping trip to Chaco Canyon where I sketched, painted, and photographed to my heart's content. Some of it was a challenge as to how I could sustain an ink drawing to the end ~ of the myriad, closely mortared, small vertical stones in the ruins. It sure takes a lot of patience when the sun is beating down & flies are determined to land on anything. The end result though is always so dear, the perseverance paying off in drawings to draw from in the long winter months to come. The inspiration one gets for one's media, like the A.S. Byatt book I'm reading [Virgin in the Garden], that feeds me new words to sing in my head & to write into my book, is the treasure one receives when one paints a new way, plays a new note, or sees new sights. What has inspired you this summer that will last through the autumn and winter?

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