Often I have felt, intuitively, the truth of this statement from The World View of Paul Cezanne by Jane Roberts and I’ll be thinking about this when of view Paul Cezanne’s motifs in Aix and walk around Paris. This excerpt is from two passages dictated by Paul Cezanne’s World View, posthumously:
“..Studying nature carefully, I have come nowhere near learning more about these other organizations, for my intellect and educated eye still structure the visual world. Yet in fields particularly, I have sensed waves, usually invisible, that seem to flow between objects, through them, uniting them in a different way; making what I call invisible shapes - because while I almost see them, I did not actually visually perceive them. I have tried to s suggest this phenomenon, both in painting rocks and fields, and in the folds of cloth where suggested shapes, if treated like objects, would surely appear to be solid.”
“….Sometimes I think that the earth retains ghost images of all the natural shapes that it has known, so that a given field may also contain pseudo-shapes - the forms of mountains or seas that once covered it in other times. Unknowingly, a painter may give a field a wavelike cast, so that the grasses suggest seas, and never know why he has done so.  Perhaps there are indeed sights to paint that we do not see, hidden within the forms that are apparent; pictures within pictures. I often study nature with this in mind.
“….Nor can he escape nature, even in his studio, for his feelings will be affected by the weather even though the drapes be closed, and those emotions and connections will seep into his decisions about his work, even if he never goes outside. Artists with a constant eye out for the academies or for sales have a tendency to ignore their own feelings and knowledge by trying to superimposed values of a social nature. They force their emotions into stereotyped images, conforming more to the restricting conventions of drawing rooms, where even language itself is stiff as stone.”
“….Paintings, then, are natural formations, rising up or emerging from a man’s psyche as surely as mountains thrust up from the ground.  A man himself has “natural features” so that his emotions, intellect, dreams and accomplishments can be compared to the different objective features of the land. Actually, the painter merges the inner landscape of the mind with the exterior one. Literally his dreams take shape.”
Actually, I think a lot of my own dry spells and of other artists who I admire, who routinely have them.  I think about the emptiness I feel sometimes, now especially, as a way of creating space within to be filled by what is coming next.
Not that “what comes next” is what I expect it to be - life is never exactly what it is expected to be - maybe it will even be better than I expect - but if it’s not - I can accept that too.
What’s clear to me - the path of Art is one that has high points (of productivity - of direct inspiration) and indirect activity and indirect inspiration - that may seem like inactivity -but it’s really not - it’s just the readiness for the next peak.
Develop that idea. I’ll let you all know how it goes while I’m walking around Paris and Aix this week.
I’m collecting a series of posts that I can run while I’m in Paris next week and Aix the week after - I’ll try to post a lot anyway - but just in case I can’t - here’s a passage from The World View of Paul Cezanne by Jane Roberts that spoke to me:
“…the artist must learn how to bide this time and lay in wait for his own creativity. It is a strange period, for while the artist seems to himself to be doing nothing of note - arranging his studio, perhaps, preparing canvases - the creative self is working with amazing rapidity. Yet the artist may feel empty and dry, as the shore may be empty and washed clean of shells when the tides are out. For like the shore, the artist’s mind must be wiped clean in the same way.
    Then, with a rush, the tidal waves of emotion and sensation roar, seemingly from nowhere, and the wise artist will be prepared. He will have rested n the meantime and not worried or berated himself over his lack of creativity. For it is now that the artist must be his own creative self, rising above the child and man; compassionately and wisely using each of their characteristics to his own ends.
    He must ride the power of his own emotions and creativity as a man might ride the tidal waves, knowing the forces of the waters, the winds and the undercurrents. He must capture the images that suit him from the thunderous, incessant ever-changing ones that come, it seems, too quickly. He must decide at once - know when to capture an image in the net of his mind and hold it, so that later his craft can give it form on canvas.”
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.
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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.
