Astonished

A Thicket in Provence

  oil on panel  6" x 8"  

"It is simply when the eye, the hand, and the heart are in alignment."

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sonnet

by Bill Knott

The way the world is not

Astonished at you

It doesn't blink a leaf

When we step from the house

Leads me to think

That beauty is natural, unremarkable

and not to be spoken of

Except in the course of things

The course of singing and worksharing

The course of squeezes and neighbors

The course of you tying back your raving hair to go out

And the course of course of me

Astonished at you

The way the world is not

Well, to anyone still paying attention, it has been roughly a month or better since my last post - corresponding to my month and a few days traveling and painting mostly in France with a balky and uncertain iPad that would not allow access to my blog. Those days are gone now and I'm almost over the jet lag.  I will use images from France to cover the blog whilst I regain my working feet here in the mid-Atlantic region of America.

My thoughts these days of course run back to the wondrous time in Provence spent painting and communing with wonderful folks in a slice of paradise. I've been thinking mostly about what is it that makes painting (or the process of any art making) such a magnet for the soul and why it's process is so valuable. I believe it traces a connection for all modern humankind to the shadowed figures making drawings in dim lit caves some ten thousand years ago. The earliest form of asserting our presence in this indifferent world, hoping for a response, maybe even expecting a response. Allowing us some small space for us to be astonished with each other and the small evidence of beauty brought at the end of the day as gifts.

I was so lucky to watch and participate over an extended time as two different groups of strangers came together from many different parts of the world and in the space of a brief few days became friends and allies. Encouraging and helping and laughing and unafraid to show it all - a magic experience. I have a theory how such magic can be possible - we are brought together by two remarkable and generous people, Julian and Ruth. So, the world may well not be astonished at our efforts, at our good fortune or our new friends - I certainly carry a renewed astonishment with me these days.

A Brisk Day at la Madelene

  oil on panel  6" x 8"