The last waltz

 

                                                                                    t coffey for Digital Mischief 2024

 

Alas, it was a sweet dream and the divine possibilities that seemed almost tangible just a few months back have burned up amidst all the tears.  

Quoi faire?

For those in fragile parts around the globe, all the usual suspects, from the Sudan to Ukraine, to the Baltic States, and now in the USA, the world looks pretty grim. 

A painter, like everyone else in society, just needs to stay awake, but at the same time, they need to keep plugging away quietly at their work.

From last week when the skies had cleared came a mini series of pictures which brought me happiness. Nothing earth-shattering, as they say, but I loved being out there on the dunes and I responded to the friendly skies with joy. With all the craziness going on everywhere, I feel grateful to be able to go out and exercise my vocation with a peaceful and quiet mind-set unlike so many of my friends around the world in this moment.

Though I wasn't impressed with it at the time, I did have the intuition to stop at an early stage and keep it as a study. Now a few day later, I like it and can see things in it I didn't initially appreciate. It was the first up from the other night as the sky was just beginning to turn. I value its simplicity and it looks as if it could have been created with the wave of a wand. 

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 17 February 2025, oil on canvas board, 30 x 25 cm 

Mellow Squish

 

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 9 February 2025, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm

Two pictures came out of the other night. It had been a quiet sky with little personality which put me off immediately. Although I initially felt stuck I made the best of it as I've learned to do here.

It can put me in an unpleasant state when I get to the beach and don't like what I see. This happens more than I'd like to admit. But hey! I always find a solution, not only for the problematic sky, but also to my intense dissatisfaction. In both cases I simply invent what I need to and this usually works. 

It's hard to be angry at Nature, let's face it. It's like being angry at a loved one, I mean, how long can one hold out? Don't we always need to relent, to surrender to it so we can reclaim some peace of mind? We cannot always be in a state of dissatisfaction can we?  "That would be a lot of heavy energy", as my cousin Jeannie would say. So it is with me for just about everything in my life; Let it be,,, like the Beatles sang. 

But then (as it usually happens), things change. And so the sky eventually softened, (like me) and it quietly morphed into more muted tones and shapes. I began this first study as small clouds lazily rolled through and in a complete reversal of mood, I found myself wanting to freely play like a kid in a sand box.  

This is what came out to my fond surprise. But to be honest, this only happened it because the sky opened itself up to me and allowed me in. Indeed, it appeared to even welcome me unto itself like it was a set of giant doors to a church in medieval France. If I hadn't gone through them I would've certainly made a very different kind of image, possibly one much less friendly-looking than this.  

I really love its gentle spontaneity of forms which makes up the sky. Looking at it today, I'm surprised that it appears as coherent as it looks when I think of my confused state at the time. How quickly things can turn around, I thought to myself. But I did sense that there was something in it that seemed to have been conjured up from my playful child within me. That is what is always so remarkable about creativity in any way or form. I wonder if Alexander Calder had been a painter, might he have made an image that looked something like this?

By the time I selected another canvas board the sky had indeed mellowed considerably, and I had also gained confidence from the first study. 

It's quite simple (unlike me), and the sweet colours of confection seem to scold me for my initial displeasure at the sky. It also apparently answers my old, secret-longing to be a pastry chef. But I really like it, flat as a pancake and full of colour. And like after a fight with a lover, any hard feelings were transformed into a soft opening, one that in painterly terms, could also be called a resolution. 

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 9 February 2025, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm

Que sera, sera

From Venice, an old photo I took of my very favourite creature in the whole wide world. It is one of two lions that stand guard at the entrance to the Arsenal. Many years later, I found out that they are Italian copies of the original Greek lions from Delos, I believe, but no matter, because I love this guy to death. This kind-looking fellow has followed me everywhere and has decorated fridges and sat inside kitchen drawers, but also propped up on a few desks, and even taped to a piano back in France years ago. I think he was also a kind of inspiration for all the sketchy animals I would later use to decorate ceramic cups, bowls and plates.

circa 1988

                    circa 1988

When I would visit Venice years ago while living in France, I paid homage to him by making hundreds of drawings. I've come to understand that he expresses something of my own personality. It's a look of quiet resignation and it's for that reason I share it today. 

The insanity of the first three weeks of the dumb Trump has made us all numb. To be fair, most of my friends and neighbours are angry, but me, less so. I refuse to lose any sanity or serenity which I still possess in my life over this nutty and dangerous period. 

Like my lion-hearted friend I'm resigned to four years of this swing to the Right as scary as it seems. I understand that many people around the globe are getting hurt because of these abrupt changes, but to worry about it doesn't do me any good, nor the world. It's true that like everyone, I was depressed, then angry, but now, like I said, I'm just resigned to the awful reality of this fact. Instead, I will find humour in it because this moron is so ridiculous  that one can only laugh at him. Thankfully, push-back seems to be coming. Que sera, sera.

All these crazy and absurd caricatures is right out of MAD magazine, for any of you of a certain age who can remember it. This morning I awakened to the news that Dennis the Menace has fired half the Board of Trustees at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He intends to install himself as the Chairman! Our dear leader of the orange culture mused on his media:

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,”

"....immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for an Orange Age in Arts and Culture.”

“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP.”

So there we are folks. 

In the meantime, here are two more studies from last week. The days are sometimes clear, but storms often appear most evenings so the painting sessions are a bit dicky, like they say in Britain.... 

But honestly, painting at the beach for me has developed into a kind of a therapy session over the past few years under both Democrat and Republican rule. This is how it should always be; just a habit, and a hobby. Maybe it's like fishing or tennis.

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 21 January 2025, oil on canvas board 30 X 25 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 21 January 2025, oil on canvas board 30 X 25 cm