A gift this Christmas offered me a wonderful quote from the French painter Vuillard:

“Who speaks of art speaks of poetry. There is no art without a poetic aim. Theres is a species of emotion particular to painting. There is an effect that results from a certain arrangement of colours, of lights, of shadows. It is this that one calls the music of painting”  How beautifully put and true I think that is.

The poetry of paint is my thought to end the year and a poem I have written to share with you, reflects my  feelings at this time:

New Year Revolution

The turning circle sweeps

A lighthouse on the waves

Of memory

The solstice that dispels our fears

With light from depths of winter

Onto these diminished years.

Resounding like a depth charge

In our brain

The year begins again

Another revolution of the soul

 

To question all we know

By setting course towards the storm,

For here it centers with the

Gyre as indecision balances

Our still small voice

Against the vastness of the sky.

We greet the possibilities

Of a future world

With this mirror that reflects uncertainty

As low light beats in time

To the rhythm of the sea

 

David Cottingham

A very happy New Year to you all.

Here is the Painting Du Jour : ” Early One Morning” a homage to my one time teacher Sir Anthony Caro who died this year.

Early One Morning lo res