Cast Shadows
Now I like to think of myself as a responsible, cautious driver. I'm not at all aggressive. I refrain from talking on the phone. I keep my mind on the matter. But I admit that when I'm driving long stretches of highway when nothing much is happening except the turning of wheels, that I get distracted. I was driving to visit my folks this past weekend- 75 miles of mostly straight highway- and the traffic was fairly light as I studied the lovely hues of reflected warm and cool colors on the back of the shiny tractor trailer truck in front of me. For miles I watched the shape of the truck's cast shadow as it sloped away from the road and the constant changes as it curled around the embankments' brush at 65 miles per hour. You can learn a lot about cast shadows by studying the vehicles in front of you.
I've talked to other artists about their driving. From all reports, we're a pretty easily distracted group. Thank goodness the insurance companies haven't caught on to us. We've all taken photographs of sunrises and sunsets from the wheel of the car- well, they're so fleeting. And we're all drawn to either the shapes or colors or natural compositions of the landscape as we zoom or crawl by yet another scene that we wish we could stop and paint.
"Look how the red violet of that mountain ridge fade to blue on the horizon. I love the shape of that tree's arc in the wind. Did you see the stones in that creek and the sunlight dancing on the water?" And when there's nothing (but there's usually something) there is always the sky. The pale warm color near the horizon that's never a cool blue, the little sparks of light that shimmer through the depth of the sky if you look at it for a long time. I used to be afraid I'd fall into it, it looked so deep. OK, I still am. Clouds, clouds, clouds- especially storm clouds. I've painted in really windy conditions that was just nuts, frankly for the sake of those wonderful clouds. I have a friend who sat at home looking out his window painting clouds day after day. His wife told him to get out of the house and make some new friends.
It's not just when we're driving that we're distracted either. I was at a party, a very nice party- we were all sitting around talking at the table. Well, other people were talking. I was caught staring out the window at the lovely shape and color of a shrub's cast shadow on the back of a shed. It was beautiful. And, its not like they were talking about art.
I changed my mind. It's not that we're easily distracted by art. No, not at all. Everything else is distracting us from our art. So there. Now you understand.
Comment on or Share this Article >>
|
