Painting With Light

"One reason why other people do not want to paint vegetatively or want to take to a vegetative way of life is because it begins too unpretentiously, it does not have great eclat or drum roll" Friedensreich Hundertwasser

I'm all for the vegetative state that the artist Hundertwasser advocated (though I suspect his definition and mine are slightly different, and his doesn't involve a TV remote and a sofa). Despite this, and tied up indoors on work this afternoon, the sun suddenly shone so brilliantly late-on, that me and MrsB decided to walk to the Library and the shops for some fresh air and exercise. Incredibly though, in the time taken to don coat and shoes, some soggy hailstones started pelting down. We had started though, so decided to finish grin and bear it. All very invigorating, but the downside was no blippable opportunity presented itself whilst I was out (I even tried one-handed with my iphone, whilst hanging onto my brolly).

We may be marginally too far south to claim the Seasonal Affective Disorder of winter light deprivation, but it did feel slightly that way today, especially with J gone from the house. I looked around for something to photograph inside once we got back and dried out, but everything just looked so dingy in the fast-approaching dusk.

I then suddenly remembered the 'artists daylight bulb' in my reading lamp, and so banged that on. In terms of what to photograph, I chose this Hundertwasser print (one of 3 framed we have hanging in the dining room). I had originally bought them, simply because the artist paintings reminded me of the same unconscious innocence in J's own vivid drawings from Primary School at the time.

This was why (sorry, sacrilege I know), I had cut this particular one up originally, and used it to 'frame' one of J's early doodles. Then, a year or so later, I overlaid another even better one, tracing her hand. The net result has been framed behind glass on our wall for the 15+ years ever since. I had completely forgotten about it, but it was a little ray of sunshine, this dull afternoon.

Postscript: Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist who became a New Zealand citizen before he died in 2000. The common themes in his work were bright colours, organic forms, and a eccentric reconciliation of humans with nature.