I’m enjoying reading The World View of Paul Cezanne by Jane Roberts.  My basic feeling about the channeling – is that, at least, in this case, it’s genuine.  There are too many subtle observations about the nature of painting for Jane Roberts to have made it up.

 

So far, I’ve read about 30% of the book – in preperation for my Trip to France in 10 days - I’ll be in Aix 2 weeks from today – and make time to see Cezanne’s studio and also, to try to view some of the motifs he painted from.

Here goes, and it will be a long post:

Entry 2 – page 22:

“…. perspective delineates the subject’s position in space and time.  The foreground as it is usually handled, pertains to the present, so that the background, by necessity implies the past.  There is no place within  a painting for the future, when perspective is so used.  There must be a . . . projected foreground.  Since one cannot be manufactured, this projected foreground must be built up within the elements of usual perspective, appearing to rise from the foreground and background as well.”

“…The painting must also suggest the continuation of itself beyond the frame in an imaginary perspective ……”

Page 33, Entry 4:

“…the artist discovers that there is such a thing as ….Life Once Removed; and this is what he creates – a brilliant life on canvas only once removed from those dimensions in which people breathe and apples grow.”

 Page 52,  Entry 6:

“…one object, again, suggests others, as the toy evokes the image of a child, a knife that of a fork, and so forth.  an apple in this respect can suggest an apple tree or an orchard. But objects  can suggest less concrete values also, as one flower in its prime suggests spring, while another in its greatest bloom evokes autumn.

……this should be taken into consideration; for the flowers as living objects, will carry implications of the various seasons in which they are characteristic.”

Page 60, Entry 8:

“…The artist must also beware of his own conventions, for some methods that suit his mood and purpose one day may suddenly no longer do so on the next.”

Granted, this material sounds kinda “spacey” and a little long on words – but…. looking at what’s being said – that this is Cezanne’s world view – I believe some things like this are possible.  There’s a lot more where this material comes from – I’ll try to finish the book before I get to Aix, maybe I’ll lend my copy to Marsha Wooley, if she’s interested in reading it – as Paul Cezanne’s our favorite painter (I guess that’s partly why she brings the painting class to Aix every year, along with Paris).

I would have painted today but my MobileCamp NYC Coverage over at Webmetricsguru.com consumed most of the day.  Well, there are many ways to create … not all of it involves painting.