Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a professional development program on the shores of Lake Como, Italy. On how to craft and offer excellent experiences, I’m still processing all that was covered. More to come about the outcomes of that intense time … when my brain has reconfigured!
Staying near Lake Como was off-the-charts beautiful! I love big lakes, and to stay in a room with this fabulous view (below), wow!
Watching the clouds roll in and out…
Sensing the depth and gravity of that body of water…
Feeling the gentle sweeps of rain across the surface of the water and my face. And waking at dawn to this…
Natural beauty takes us to that still place. Art can point to it, and even hold the stillness. And it’s so much easier to learn in a nurturing, calming, beautiful environment.That’s what I want to recreate through my work – both art and the programs.
After the PD, I decided to spend a couple of days seeing Morandi’s paintings, and his studio, in Bologna.
Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter (1890-1964), drew, etched and painted. Some people have dismissed his painting of the same objects over and over. But they miss the point. Every painting has a unique ambience. And the differences are not subtle when you see the work in series across the years.
Artist Alberto Giacometti said something quite telling about this way of working … that he could paint a glass on a table and that would be enough; it would be different every time. Both artists’ works are about capturing the essence of what we see.
Found at second-hand dealers, Morandi gazed upon his collected objects on moonlit nights. He loved arranging them in relation to each other, aware of the myriad energetic pushes, pulls and merges that were possible.
This came home to me when I exhibited my first installation. It took 2 hours to get the composition right. Thereafter, I could not recreate the same composition. It showed me we’re constantly changing. Perhaps by fractions of a degree, so that what was ‘just right’ yesterday, is not so today. We’re right there in our creations!
Since composing objects with the intention of creating contemplative spaces, I understand the objects in Morandi’s paintings are… offered up for our contemplation.
Like Rene Magritte’s famous words – Ceci n’est pas une pipe – This is not a pipe – a vase is not a vase for Morandi. It’s a presence that grapples with the nature of reality.
Morandi was familiar with Magritte’s work. And also that of Einstein. Informed by quantum mechanics, and as a rebuttal to criticism of his work not being abstract, Morandi said
‘Nothing is more abstract than reality.’
I regret not buying the T-shirt featuring this quote back in 2008! It was the first time I’d seen a comprehensive exhibition of Morandi’s work. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, you might recall my story of running there from 54th Street in the rain to see the show for the 3rd time. I’d not planned to write about him in my dissertation, but that show changed my seeing. And my boots!
Long fascinated about what can be created from a few simple ingredients, Morandi is like that too, but perhaps not as much as I thought after seeing his collection of props! There’s another full shelf above what is shown in the photo below, and more in the studio.
For MAMbo’s (Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna) 2008 Morandi catalogue, Renato Miracco illuminates Morandi’s endeavour with support from many others for his thesis about the silence in the artist’s work.
Through his forms, Morandi points us beyond form to the infinite; the eternal. Stillness lives there, but it is alive, fundamental to all the forces of a world in motion and contrary to the titles natura morta. When we look until we’re seeing, the depicted surface of things falls away and what is left, is that. Seems like nothing, but no.
One of our sessions will be dedicated to seeing beyond the surface of things in the Contemplative Art Circle. Don’t worry, I’ve taught this to over 100 people and everyone gets it!
There’s more than meets the eye in Morandi’s paintings, drawings and etchings. They require time.
What those forms and outlines restore to us is the truth of a vanished world, the memory of a period, the space of a dimension that is separated and excluded from reality while at the same time deriving from it: in a word, abstraction into the real and from the real. Renato Miracco
Would you like to regularly experience calm, clarity and creative expression through contemplative processes, while building confidence in your visual art skills?
Registration for the monthly Painting Peace – Contemplative Art Circle is still open.
Bookings close May 31, so that when you book you also receive a 45 min bonus Mentoring Session, plus 4 gifts to help you find more calm, clarity and creativity, all for a one-off offer AUD 990. The first workshop is June 13 (June 12 in the US)
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