Apple Blossom at Strandvägan
Another blossom study today in the same location at the foot of the ski slope. The tree a little more mature and fuller in bloom than the previous study. I already had the subject in mind so I managed an early start today, in fact I was set up and painting by five and twenty past eight! The size is about a 15 and it is a second hand one. My blossom sits upon a still life of red apples painted in tentative hand which I procured from the loppis at the back of the Yellow house in Bergby. You know I have been re using old canvases from the loppi recently, in fact both self portraits from the Work 24 set were on used supports, but you can rarely find anything larger than a 15 for money that is reasonable. My usual practice is to make my own frames using some inexpensive timber from Lindris1 and fashioning it into a frame using the equipment in the well stocked snickeri2 of my sambo's3 father. My own skills in the realm of snikering leave much to be desired but I like to do it my way and develop the best practice through trial and error and that is exactly what I have done over the years in Sweden and now I can knock out any frame I want in short order. There was always a problem however with the larger size frames as a twisted canvas would often result but just recently, since I resolved to work on a larger scale, I have taken to procuring old tables and doors from återvinningscentral4 up the road and sawing them into strips. You see I discovered that the reason for the twist and warp was a wood too soft and generally a pine table is far harder wood and can take the strain of the stretched canvas far better. So it seems the good folk of Lindris have lost my custom for now, through no fault of their own I might add. They were always good to me and tolerant of my insane Swedish.
In the study we can see evidence of flirtation with Cezanian patch painting5 in the way the grass is built up but for the fruit tree once again I think only of The Dutchman. Speaking of the Dutch I recently completed a house portrait for a newly installed family from the Hague who have upped sticks to settle in Sweden. We first met them due to my daughter befriending their little one at Slåtergubben6 by speaking to her in English as the dutch girl spoke not a word of the local tongue. When I exchanged with the parents about all this I was amazed to discover that they had no idea their daughter could speak any English and they put it solely down to her consumption of the You Tube. Anyway, as the children's friendship like a fruit tree blossoms, the parents are obliged to relate, and after a few visits and dinners these good dutch folk decided on a commission of the house of Mark's grandparents which sits on the same plot. (Mark is the girls father.) Now these people can keep house! I mean really! First the elder gentleman had to convert an old barn into living quarters; plumbing, electrics, sewage, no problem! From nothing to an exemplary abode fit for the page of hello magazine, working by himself...no problem. But then the gardens; Daubignyesque7, exquisite! Splendid flowers planted to bloom by design then perfectly kept fruit trees and veg patches squared off ready to plant. Chickens for eggs and the occasional roast and indeed when I visited last weekend to deliver the painting, which they were pleased with, (no repeat of the Ana debacle8 thankfully) they had just the previous evening slaughtered a rooster and ate the bugger in the pot! A little tough the conclusion. During this merry visit I was guided around their cold storage lada by the elder and as he showed me into the dim room I could not help be reminded of the unforgettable performance of Scatman Crothers in the Shining9 as he showed Wendy the hotels wares. Like her I became dizzily agog at their array of beef steaks, moose mince, hung susages, smoked goods, chutneys and jams, and you know they are such a generous bunch they sent me back to Bergby with a batch of their best.
You know I refrain from too much personal information in this scholarship exchange of ours, we have a very serious program after all, but I can tell you that my house and my philosophy or rather 'way' of living seems to be the polar opposite of these good dutch folk. I cast no judgement but it certainly seems that setting things to right and ensuring complete mastery over ones domain is a way of living. What I mean is that with those desires it is possible to achieve a state of satisfaction purely by organising life well and this can be the case regardless of whether one lives in a rural wonderland or inner city flat or some other scant dwelling. If all is organised in optimum fashion then all is right with the world. In this sense we can see a military attitude creeping inn, but as I said no judgement but what about imagination, creativity? Well of course all that is well within the purview of one who adopts the highly organised lifestyle but I fancy it come second fiddle to the chores.
Now Helen and I live in the opposite state, closer to Francis Bacon's studio10 than a twelve mat tatami room11. It is chaos and setting things to right comes only when it becomes a necessity and when we do achieve a modicum of control over our possessions we all agree that it feels much better and we should aspire to retain this standard but it soon slips back to the status quo of farcical storage and blind spot piling - objects growing into towers. Why? Because there are desires within that take priority and it comes down to what one must do to feel that all is well, to feel satisfaction in life. For myself daily creative practice is a fundamental psychological need and one which extends outwards into the world and speaks to politics, to the state of world, to all eternity if we dare be so bold, but the point is there is no ceiling, no point where one has it all squared away and can do no more and that actually creates quite a pressure and in fact a serious creative life is actually somewhat of a doomed existence but there is a huge payoff, in that every day there is the potential for magic.
Anyway, forgive this digression into the world of housekeeping. I can hear my father wandering around the flat12 looking for his wife who is in the bathroom. He is saying "oh dear, alone again, alone again oh well". It is dreadfully sad and one feels a heavy heart and nothing but love for the old man but as is the family tradition when he retains his normal state he is as impenetrable as he is annoying. Just now I looked up from the screen and shouted if he was alright...he opened the door and belted out 'none shall sleep'13! Then my mother emerged and all was well again so I asked him to close the door and this simple request sparked a five minute mime act in which he enacted all manner of ways one would not go about closing the door before finally placing a one hand on the handle and saluting with the other. I watched all this in a state of poise, my hands still hovering over the keyboard to resume this communique and just as the door was about to close he opened it again and asked me to confirm my name! So you see the sadness and sympathy one may have for him can vanish pretty quick as he resumes his playing. He truly is an artist with no medium.
Returning to the work, the blossom in this study has more movement in it I fancy, compared with the previous and it was an interesting process of observation and choice to arrive at the particular motion suggested. You see the movement depicted is but one possible rendering of infinite possible angles, directions and swooshes the blossoms may take and one settles on one based on what Cezanne calls the 'sensation'. Cezanne was whispering to me as I painted last year when I read the Danchev biography14 and the key to his work is 'sensation' but what that actually means in terms of technique is not articulated, perhaps the French text would be more revealing, but I took it to refer to something akin to a 'glimpse' a shape or movement that strikes one when in the act. That is how he can claim that everything he paints he has seen and also to 'telling the truth in painting' even when the result seems highly subjective. He has seen these shapes, felt a sense of motion or weight I believe in sensation that hits one quickly like a glimpse and I say this in the knowledge of his long winded working methods but I maintain that the sensation hits one initially at least in a flash which can then be worked on, built up and become the painting or discarded and one looks again. It happened to me just today as I glimpsed at a certain moment, a certain instant where the blossoms revealed themselves in a particular way, a particular motion became dominant and there we have it. I put it down.
Tomorrow we shall tackle another while the iron is hot. I have spotted, just to the left of the tree depicted today, a tiny apple sapling that appears to be carrying a weight of blossom beyond the strength of its infant frame but appearing all the more charming for it.
Bests,
John
PS
I had hoped to mention a podcast on the subject of a hypothetical second civil war in America15 but i that will have to wait. I can tell you however that the author, a journalist by the name of Evens, delves somewhat chillingly into the state of things regards the polarised politics of the Trump moment and the time bomb set to off in the 2020 election. Zakhar bring me some popcorn...16
1 Hardware merchant in Häverödal, close to Johns home in Bergby.
2 Carpenters workshop.
3 Sambo is a Swedish word which means partner.
4 Recycling center.
5 Cezanne, along with Camille Pissarro, developed a way of painting in small patches on different parts of the canvas to bring all parts of the work together simultaeneously. See Alex Danchevs: Cezanne: A Life - anarchist painting - painting in patches. John mentions reading this book in Work 6
6 John's daughters dagis (kindergarten)
7 Charles Daubigny, painter associated with the Barbizon school. In describing the garden as Daubignyesque John is possibly reffering to Van Gogh's painting of Daubigny's garden at Auvers.
8 See Torpoint Art Service Work 17.
9 Scatman Crothers played the part of Dick Hallorann who is the cook at the Overlook Hotel.
10 Bacon kept a famously chaotic studio.
11 A Japanese traditional flooring technique. Room size is calculated in terms of multiples of this standard mat: 8, 12, 16 mat rooms. John associates a 12 mat tatami room to a state of calm but this is not intrinsically the case; one can also have a very messy 12 mat room.
12 John often works at his elderly parents flat in Norrtälje whilst offering care.
13 Nessun Dorma
14 Already mentioned in note 5.
15 Robert Evans, It Could Happen Here.
16 Reference to Ivan Goncharovs Oblomov. Zahkar is Oblomovs long suffering manservant. See also note 16 to Work 15 - 24