Chardin
It is a glum day for California, but happy 2010 all the same. Puddles of rainwater on the tarpaper roof of the condo carports; the birches, which don't in any case like coastal California weather (my mother claims birches only like Saskatchewan and should never be planted anywhere else, and my mother has never been wrong for going-on 93 years), have a hangdog look; only the squirrels are irrepressible as they braid up and down the eucalyptis tree. Inside here I glance up at my open book of Chardins: my creative touchstone. It's just pots and pans, I tell myself, you can do that.
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About beverley
BEVERLEY BIE BRAHIC was born in Canada, and lives in Paris and Stanford, California. A translator and poet, her work has appeared in Field, Literary Imagination, Notre Dame Review, Oxford Poetry, PN Review, Poetry, The Times Literary Supplement, and...
Chardin for the new year
The deceptive simplicity of a copper pot, an onion, an apple. I have learned the so-called secrets of the Old Masters; the grinding of pigments, the recipes for oils and emulsions, and I paint with Chardin and others looking over my shoulder. The continuity of art is a wondrous start for a new year.
Chardin
Yes, deceptive simplicity. And he became more and more simple the more he painted, reducing clutter, echoing forms...not to mention the light. Thanks for dropping in, Mara.