Personal Connections....

I’m not a plein air painter. I’m not great at dealing with unpredictable weather, so studio painting is mostly what I do….that being said I quite often take paper and paint with me on travels here, and abroad…a brush, a few pans of solid watercolour is all I really need to quickly record, what the poet William Wordsworth called “spots of time”. It somehow seems more satisfying that just recording with the camera, though I do that as well…it also refreshes the senses in the delight of recording the moment...

My paintings are completed in the studio, but sketches and notes are kept in files to be looked at and pondered over in quiet recollection of moments of intense enjoyment….some never make it to fully finished paintings and that’s fine…indeed sometimes sketches are a composite of images remembered in the tranquility of the studio, even of places I’ve only seen in books.

In musing about “spots of time” the painter Robert Genn states “that these are small, memorable events that occur mainly outdoors and in touch with nature. According to the poet Wordsworth, himself a great walker, who clocked in 175 thousand mile in his lifetime, these spots have lasting quality, and are capable of “lifting us up when we are fallen.”

One way that Wordsworth marked this occurrence was in the titling of his work. Tintern Abbey for example, is subtitled “On revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798.” This specificity nails down the time and place of the event as something memorable and worthy. All works of art can follow this form. Recording a personal connection or inspirational detail gives added value to both an observation and a creative act”.

We visual artists are in the grab and save business, just as Wordsworth was, in the poetry business. But we are in a position to hone and augment our powers with technology that the poet could not have dreamed of. Daffodils, butterflies, cuckoos, mountain sheep or mountaintops-our need is to monumentalize. By making a physical entity-a painting, a poem or a tapestry—we freeze a spot and our feelings about it for eternity. The object we create becomes its own spot. When we take our leave, this spot remains behind to say that we were there, we saw, and we passed it on. Thus is a creator measured”.

We can ask no greater joy than to pass gently through this place that has been given to us, and make something out of it. Not necessarily to fully understand it, for that might be an impossible task, but to honour it in our own way.

“Nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.” (William Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality)

I think painting for me, is in part, a kind of defiance of death…to tell my personal story in pictures even after I’m gone…to leave behind some trace of my existence..Janis…with extracts from Robert Genn’s letters.

Esoterica: A book that examines spots-of-time phenomena with clarity and brilliance is The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. Using Wordsworth, Van Gogh, Alexander Humboldt, Gustave Flaubert, Edward Hopper and others as traveling guides, he opens our eyes to the value of the easily overlooked and the seemingly insignificant.

Recognized as one of Canada’s most accomplished painters, Robert Genn’s work is well known internationally. While his subjects are universal (he has painted in many countries), he excels in portraying Canada….Robert runs an international art listing site called The Painters Keys.

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art, cards, food, fruit, history, janis, landscape, painting, traditions, watercolour, words and writing