The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1817, Casper David Friedrich.
This painting came to mind today as I contemplate ideas for my art practice and how to move forward and progress. In the painting the man stands on the edge of the cliff. There can be many interpretations of this panting such as is the man depressed and contemplating ending his life considering that he has climbed up the cliff face during the fog or perhaps he is simply contemplating his life. Who knows? However, for me it displays a world of possibilities that although there is a fog covering the scene below there is always uncertainty about what's ahead and this can bring an element of fear but also excitement as to what may be revealed.
On a recent Webex one student said a quote from the Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (to be honest I had never heard of him) but the quote really caught my attention. It is "life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. This struck a chord with me relating to my art practice and what next steps to take. So inspired by this I plan to look backwards, to reflect on what I have done before to learn to grow, develop to live and to move forwards.
So, with this is mind I plan to do three sketchbooks on three themes. One landscape, one containing portraits and the final abstract work. These three elements seem to be a recurring theme for me and it would be good to experiment more and see where this leads me. I have already begun this process and my previous post the 'The Joy of Music' is the first portrait in my portrait sketchbook and in this I, plan to do a variety of portraits trying different mediums and styles and the portraits will be of family. The landscape one I will be revisiting two favourite themes that of the forest and the other the sea and seeing if I can push this theme further than before. Finally, for the abstract sketchbook I will be looking at shapes. Inside shapes and outside shapes more in particular in relation to photographs I have taken of shapes that have interested me on visits to a variety of different places. On a recent visit to GOMA I took pictures of various features of the building and created a small artists book which I completed during lockdown. I plan to create larger pieces from this and work on other imagery that I haven't used yet and see where all of this takes me.
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