I am always interested in the divergences and convergences of different traditions of thought and philosophy, for example the Western and Eastern. My actual practice arises out of the Western tradition but my philosophical approach seems to also correspond with the notion of Tao – an Eastern concept. There is so much more to find out and know about all this – I am certainly no expert. I have never been to China but my Dad collected Chinese porcelain and the scenes depicted on the vessels he had in his collection, I found evocative – though I couldn’t specify in what way. Our understanding of the world is a biological, body matter, something that transgresses cultural boundaries. I would like to be able to articulate this better. Suddenly practopoiesis springs to mind too… to do with the whole body involvement in the formation of thought… I can’t explain myself very well yet.
The Six Persimmons is a historic Chinese painting I have felt drawn to. James Cahill was a leading expert on Chinese art and he produced a series of lectures: http://ieas.berkeley.edu/publications/aparvlectures.html devoting one entire lecture to the Six Persimmons: https://www.youtube.com/embed/-X7NzvEnDhs
During this lecture (note the Szygeti violin playing soundtrack at beginning of video) and especially at the end, Cahill talks about the Six Persimmons, in a way which for me has real resonance with pictopoiesis.
Below some smaller paintings just done, in oil and pencil on paper, on the notion of Six Persimmons – beginning the preparation for the next large painting.
Notes to self: Concurrently, the latest large painting is now in its final phase and I have another series of 30-40 individual images of the painting, captured throughout its creation, to be processed in Lightroom and then Photoshop – which will take some time. I shall probably post up the sequence of this last painting in lesser quality images taken with my pocket camera as I went along. Everything is very slow and laborious and needs a lot of patience. I am also writing a narrative for the painting, to be presented in much the same way as in the previous post video
Szygeti – violin soundtrack – Florian! – andante = walking pace = wandering
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