Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Landscape Into Art




I keep doing these ink drawings when wandering around the landscape.  These are two of the best from the recent group.  Both are 8x10.

For a much needed refresher, I've been rereading Kenneth Clark's Landscape Into Art.  He writes, "Facts become art through love, which unifies them and lifts them to a higher plane of reality; and, in landscape, this all embracing love is expressed by light."  A little further on, in Chapter 2, he adds, "Bellini's landscapes are the supreme instance of facts transfigured through love.  Few artists have been capable of such universal love, which embraces every twig, every stone, the humblest detail as well as the most grandiose perspective, and can only be attained by a profound humility."

I've never tried to paint like Bellini, nor do I think it's necessary to be able to pursue the love that Clark writes about.  It's a stance, an attitude that one has to be awake to.

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