Hi all
I managed to catch up with my 84 year old aunt today, or is it yesterday
already? Whatever. :-) I haven't seen her for almost 5 years and haven't
visited her for the best part of twenty five years. My mother had told me
last week that she (my aunt) wanted to have a look at some of my
photographs, and maybe I'd like to look at her paintings. I couldn't agree
quickly enough.
Anyway, we popped down there for the afternoon for a visit. My aunt is 84,
going on 25. She still paints, and has about 3 works on the go at present.
She and my uncle had dragged out every canvas for viewing. Some of them are
absolutely wonderful. One took my eye almost immediately, a painting of a
street in ... erm ... [insert city in Europe here]. My mind is playing
silly buggers with me, I'll remember the city later, about a minute after I
post this. It is a most wonderful picture. I'm probably the worst art
critic in the world, and that'd be stating the bleeding obvious. I was
smitten with the painting, and I'll have to talk to my mum about what it'll
take to acquire it.
We talked about her methods and how she was still learning how to do
things. We talked about light, we talked about colours, we talked about
technique, we talked about composition. It is a shame I have as much talent
as painting as I do at bricklaying, which suffice to say is almost nil. I
was amazed that she was still learning new techniques, some of which
require quite a deal of control to master. She was unfazed about learning
them, but her eyesight isn't as good these days, so it is a bit harder than
it should be. :-)
We talked about how she got started, and how she wasn't allowed to draw
when she was a kid. It wasn't until she was living on the farm, and things
were good, that she picked up a paint brush and started to paint. She still
goes to workshops, and showed us a charcoal on paper drawing she did at the
last one she attended, about 2 years ago. The workshop was on getting ideas
on paper in a short amount of time, using the minimum amount of effort (or
something like that). I reckon had the person in the drawing walked in the
door he would have been recognised from the drawing.
All in all, some of her insights will be incorporated into how I see images
when I'm about to photograph them.
We got onto my photographs. Where I look at the picture and see the image,
my aunt was taken by the light on objects, by how scenes flowed, how the
colours came together in a scene. I said she could keep any of the photos
she wanted, as I have the negatives, and re-prints are pretty cheap. She
was unsure, but I still left about 20 or 25 photos with her. I found it
pleasing that a lot of the ones she wanted to keep are among my favourite
photographs.
The one she liked the most is the one that sits above my computer here at
home. The same photograph is my backdrop to windows at work, and has been
for the past year and a half. One day I may get around to submitting it to
the PUG, but I'm more inclined to be selfish, and keep it to myself. LOL
I left thinking it would be a shame to let 5 years go by without visiting
again. Maybe I will take some 12 x 8's when I go visiting next time.
All in all it was an inspiring day. I came away feeling that if I live to
be 85, and still think of myself as a wrinkled 25 year old, I'll be doing
alright. If I can still be learning new things at the same time I think
I'll have done better that could ever have been expected.
Like the subject says, it was my wonderful day. I just thought I'd share a
bit of it with the list.
Cheers
Jon
Relax! Take life as it comes, you can't chase the sun, you can't race the wind
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