A sense of place is our internal compass, our personal map -- made up of memories, sensory attributes of sight, sound, smell and touch, and being in the moment. It affects our responses and how we approach our work, family, friends and life. Whether I am walking on the beach below my home on the cliff, or working outside in my Zen gardens (which I have been doing a LOT lately), I am becoming more aware of my surroundings and the joy and peace it brings me.
"I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to."--- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Floods, 30"x45", acrylic
Erin McSavaney lives and works in Vancouver BC, Canada. His landscape paintings and architecture/buildings paintings are often quite large and always striking. His wonderful website can be found here.
"Human patterns of building, occupying, using, abandoning, and then often reclaiming. All have a marked affect on how structures-- and ultimately ourselves-- are perceived." Erin McSavaney
Sun Lights the Coastal Plains, pastel, 12"x18"
Kathleen Galligan is a Maine artist who works in a number of mediums. You can find her beautiful website here.
Emergence, oil, 10"x10""The sound of the sea, the curve of a horizon, wind in leaves, the cry of a bird leave manifold impressions in us. And suddenly, without our wishing it at all, one of these memories spills
from us and finds expression in musical language... I want to sing my interior landscape with the simple artlessness of a child." -- Claude Debussy
from us and finds expression in musical language... I want to sing my interior landscape with the simple artlessness of a child." -- Claude Debussy
Index No. 955, encaustic and charcoal on panel, 60"x50"
Peter Roux is a mixed media artist who often uses encaustic with oil and/or charcoal and works quite large. He often incorporates text into his works and you can find his wonderful website here.
"The development of space in a painting sets up distances: between viewer and subject, and between formal elements and points of information within a subject." -- Peter Roux(The above is titled: Notes on Italy: Venice text No. 6, 50"x108", oil and encaustic)
Susan Loeb is an artist from New Orleans. These two works are black and white watercolors.You can find her beautiful website here.
"Every one seeks a sense of place, whether it is his or her own back yard or country. Place reinforces one's sense of self, one's true identity." Susan Loeb
"I combine observation, memory, and the presence of the subject in strongly stated images that embody my emotional response to New Orleans, the place I call home." -- Susan Loeb
Tim O'Kane is an artist who works in both fine art paintings and in fine art photography. You can find his wonderful work and the complete poem (below) at his website here. (The above painting is titled 2 Whales and is watercolor on paper.)
PEBBLE BEACH, watercolor on paper...The painter loved the world
with its conflicts of light and shadow,
desolation and beauty.
His was just one intention in a troubled world
the intimacy growing like ivy
around the obstacles of doubt,
as he watched
the carving continue on the monument of faces
birds filling and emptying the promontory of sky,
the tenuous construction on networks of bridges
from soul to soul, dream to dream, day to day.
---Tim O'Kane, Signature, 2008, excerpt
with its conflicts of light and shadow,
desolation and beauty.
His was just one intention in a troubled world
the intimacy growing like ivy
around the obstacles of doubt,
as he watched
the carving continue on the monument of faces
birds filling and emptying the promontory of sky,
the tenuous construction on networks of bridges
from soul to soul, dream to dream, day to day.
---Tim O'Kane, Signature, 2008, excerpt
27 comments:
Donna - seems like its been a long time since i have seen one of your posts show up on my sidebar . . . i wonder if there was some kind time warp with blogger?? anyway, always a great pleasure to read your posts.
Hi Donna. Again, you made a great, inspiring post.I'm always looking forward to the next one. I especially love the work of Peter Roux.
So many lovely places and pieces of work. Enjoyable and Inspiring, as usual.
Always thankful for your posts. Wonderful art and inspiring links...have a beautiful day.......
I think that your Zen garden is one of my favorites in this posting. I can see why it has captured your attention. what a peaceful place it appears to be. Does it require lots of weeding or do you have some way to deter them from walkways that really works? I find that weeds seem to come up even when I lay weed cloth down. Any advice?
I am especially drawn to your garden as I am in the process of redoing the front garden here in a Japanese style. Any more pictures?? On flickr or tumblr?
Peter's work also appeals greatly.
Yes to a sense of place. I am a true homebody and can happily spend days without leaving our property but do feel so at home in the coastal landscape.
Hi Donna, thanks for the great links and the 'sense of place' connections - so important to ground and balance the soul. Can you please come and Zen up my garden chaos???? xoxoxoxo
A lovely visual journey... thanks!
I find the older i get the more I feel and need this sense of place. Loving the quotes and art you have gathered together for this post Donna. Your zen garden must be such a joy. One can so easily get "lost" in a garden.
A wonderful post. All these images seem very calming and balancing to me. Very beautiful landscape painting. I would now like to paint a landscape.
And it must be wonderful to paint in your garden .
This is a wonderful blog
A visit here is always a little bit to calm down for me. Wonderful.
many greetings from Bavaria
Thanks for the beautiful links, Donna.
Your Zen garden is just wonderful!
Hi D - totally agree with place and connectedness. F and I always sigh when we arrive back on our mountain with views across the valley - we know we are home in more ways than being in our house - home with the energy, familiar, the vista. Thanks for sharing. Go well. B
place definitely connects us to who we are and where we've come from. wonderful post. the zen garden, works by Peter Roux and Pebble Beach work & poem are all great works of art. thanks for sharing. have a great day.
As ever you have made my day! I love the quote from Debussy. I wish my garden had a little more zen and a little less zing but it is what it is and I enjoy it despite an abundant crop of weeds due to a very wet spring! they love to erupt from beneath the stones! thank you for sharing all the inspiring artworks with us.
oh dear, I'm supposed to be working
and
you've thrown all this temptation for sidewards wandering in my way
Isn't it wonderful to be that awake?
Lovely works here. I find my 'place' my garden & the shore so grounding, both calming & exciting, giving such solace.
thoughtful post. a sense of place is so important to me for my soul and my feeling of belonging. i sometimes think you could drop me anywhere and after i have lived there for awhile i wouldnt want to leave as the landscape becomes ingrained in my being and perspective.
your home and garden are just so lovely.
Wonderful post. I have been working on still life, that shows a sense of place, it took me three years to think about it, then I worked on that idea for two years. I guess there is more... as I have returned to it and am trying to take it a step further. I love the quotes you have selected! Thanks so much.
I spoke with an arty gathering this week about what it means to be owned by place (which is very different to possessing it). I am the 5th generation of my family to live in a a tiny town a long way from anywhere....
and I understand to my bones and soul: to know where you come from is to know yourself
Happiest of Sundays to you Donna. I love everything about this post, your words, the art and the quotes. This is my summer to feel that sense of place as well. The beach below your home is both stunning and serene. roxanne
Donna--So good to read your post this fourth of July. In a sense, our celebration of freedom is also a celebration of place and of finding one's place. I've been spending it in my garden (a much more arid place in central CA!)and just feeling grateful for the huge bumble bees, the exotic shapes of the succulents and the sweet jasmine tumbling down the trellis. Your journey through the country of art helps to make it a perfect day...
wonderful food for thought and stunning art to uplift.... as always it is a beauty break to stop by your place...
i think it must be time to make a private corner in my outdoor space...
the need to find
that peaceful spot
to watch
the way the real world turns.
The heart is the enchanted place. Even if imprisoned its dream would be the touching place of water light earth tree sea bird song
I wish my waters beached such trees
Blessings
Landscapes are so very special. I read once that painting a landscape will reduce the painter's blood pressure. And song writers and poets know about the connection with place too. What a wonderful topic for your post Donna. Thanks for all the interesting links.
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