| January 9th, 2001
On the beach at Le Pouldu, near Pont-Aven, Brittany, there's a leaning formation of rocks that could be organized a bit by looking down on it and laying the horizon fairly high in the composition. It took a while to get the position right. A few minutes into the painting I realized it would benefit with a figure or some other motif in the lower right. The next day I organized my daughter Sara to stand in as a model. This painting was among the ones I brought home that summer. Off it went to a gallery and subsequently disappeared into the great Diaspora where all paintings go. Some months later I was thumbing through a book with illustrations of the work of Gauguin. Here, on page 75, was the same painting--produced in 1886--same rocks, same high horizon, my daughter's figure replaced by a Breton girl and a couple of cows. This coincidence, like all the others, was just a part of the greater mystique that artists know about. It's not only that there's a brotherhood and sisterhood out there, but the phenomenon is without the constraint of time. It's a plenum of inspiration and working-out from time immemorial--from the feeling of immediacy you get from those first scrapings on the cave walls at Lascaux--to the timeless smell and wet-spotted floors of a Manhattan walk-up. It's even in the rhythm of pulling and tacking a canvas to a stretcher. There's some sort of eternal music in the air, and if we listen and move with it we may have the feeling that we are taking part in a larger dance. Best regards, PS: "Neither Imperial Russia, nor the Russia of the Soviets needs me. They don't understand me. I am a stranger to them. I'm certain Rembrandt loves me." (Marc Chagall) Esoterica: The book is called "Gauguin" and the text is by Robert Goldwater, a professor at New York University. He suggests that artists, even from widely divergent backgrounds, "have a uniform will to create, to invent methods to match visions, and the concentration on the artistic goal to be achieved against all obstacles." If you would like to see selected responses to the previous letter "Bonfire of the Vanities," please go to http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/bonfire.htm. Here you will also find further information on the current effectiveness of on-line galleries. This letter and previous ones appear in French at www.painterskeys.com/fr |
|
 |
Robert Genn is one of Canada's most accomplished painters, having gained international recognition for his genre subjects on Canada's West Coast. He has painted in most parts of Canada, and in the United States, Central America, Europe and Asia. Born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1936, he attended Victoria College, The University of British Columbia and The Art Centre School in Los Angeles, California. |
|
Bob carries on the tradition of the Canadian Landscape with fresh, painterly techniques and strong design, often and especially exhibiting his devotion to painting by reducing grand themes to small panels - painted in the wilderness he loves.
Visit his official site for more information on his art and books. Robert is a contributing editor to WetCanvas! and can be reached via email at rgenn@wetcanvas.com. Robert Genn's free twice-weekly letters can also be sent to you via email every Tuesday and Friday mornings by notifying him via e-mail at rgenn@wetcanvas.com. |
|
