Lately, I’ve started some work on clouds. The point is not to represent different cloud formations true to nature, but to give the clouds a meaning that goes beyond “being a cloud”.
The starting point was a poem by Berthold Brecht.
The title of the poem is: Reminiscence of Marie A. (Erinnerung an die Marie A.)
Of course, I know a lot of poems, especially the Chinese and Persian ones, and yet this one is one of the few that I know by heart and that has been one of my favorites for decades. So first the poem:
Reminiscence of Marie A.
One day in blue-moon September
silent under a plum tree
I held her, my silent pale love
in my arms like a fair and lovely dream.
And above us in the summer sky
was a cloud that caught my eye.
It was white and so high up.
And when I looked up, it was no longer there.
An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September
Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum
Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe
In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum.
Und über uns im schönen Sommerhimmel
War eine Wolke, die ich lange sah
Sie war sehr weiß und ungeheuer oben
Und als ich aufsah, war sie nimmer da.
(Wikipedia translation)
The picture I painted for it certainly has some weak points. After 2 attempts that approached the topic in a completely different way, this came about. What I like about it is that the cloud has now become very dominant. An amorphous, white thing that is very present up there and yet it resembles the impermanence par excellence. With its light, it interacts with the lower levels of perception, but like the dream, the memory also picks out details that can seem very precise even after decades, while the overall picture is blurred and reflects more of a mood and memories.
Actually, I would like to add a few more accents, but I am aware that the dreamy overtone would lose with every change.
So I’ll probably leave it that way and better try to refine some thoughts in a new picture on this topic.
Incidentally, I recently painted a picture for a story by the same author that reflects the essence of the poem in an original way.
If you haven’t checked recently, I have revised my catalog and added new works: gestural painting. Similar: If sharks were people.
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