Life Imitates Art: Greeted by Cézanne
Arriving in Provence is like walking into a painting. It is so visually appealing and more ... it appeals to all the senses. Tastes and smells, as well as sights, are abundantly pleasurable in this region. Olive groves, vineyards, orchards, lavender, and the famed herbes de Provence. It's tough land to plough with so many rocks in its ochre-rich soils of varied colours. A multitude of green trees and shrubs, now changing to autumn hues, softly merge with the deep red and yellow-red earth under amazingly blue skies.
We've settled for several months in a very nice cottage near the old village of Rognes, not far from Aix-en-Provence, home of Cézanne. Paul is my constant neighbour, whose round bald pate is magnificent, and in tribute to whom I've made the Bienvenue digitally altered montage portrait shown above. Not only did Cézanne love and never leave Provence for long, but he saw it and painted it as few before him ever had.
It is early autumn, and the light is remarkable. How to describe light? Start with its clarity here, given the dry air and open skies free of much industrial pollution . Such different skies and light here than in my Canadian Pacific rain-forest home. The light here now also has a quality of softness that imparts a warm, golden glow. Everything is penetrated and sculpted by it, without hard edges. Compared to the brilliantly sharp light of southern Spain and Greece, the light here seems to caress forms rather than chisel or outline them. It insinuates shadows that seem to slide into, rather than cut, the ground. It illuminates in and around the subtly coloured foreground planes and unifies them with harmonious backgrounds.... just like in a magnificent painting.
I wish I could capture the quality of light in photos (shown below, late afternoon in our backyard at Solar de Provence, our rented cottage, no filters or alterations). Photos just can't transmit the sense of being surrounded by this extraordinary golden light
The Weather
We've stayed in Provence during different seasons, including winter. Though the landscape continues to amaze across seasons, the weather isn't always obliging. For me, the high summer is worst, with temperatures so high I cannot do anything but lie in a puddle under a fan. There are some serious winds in different seasons as well. In fact, about 30 different kinds of winds have been named in Provence. Among them, the mistral is the most frequent and violent, thouh it is sometimes confused with the glacial and powerful tramontane. I was turned away from continuing on a hike by one wind that reached 60k that day. What does it say about a region that has catalogued so many varieties of wind? Then, I think of all the different wines and cheese varieties produced here.
Mont Sainte Victoire
Living and so near it and following in the footsteps of Cézanne, I see the reality of Mont Ste. Victoire, the mountain he lived near and painted again and again. He seems never to have tired of its planes of broken colour that abut and define blocks of mass that change with the light.
During several visits to Provence across the years, I've climbed this iconic mountain along its several steep and rocky paths, reaching its summit with a sense of pilgrimage. Years ago, we lived in the village of Puyloubier, sitting right on the toes of Ste. Victoire. Some of its oldest houses used the mountain, itself, as their back wall. You can also find trails marked and stones laid in ancient Roman times.
The mountain is very rocky, parts of it quite steep and loose, and there is no water along the way to the summit. Taking the trail from Puyloubier, the small St. Ser hermitage chapel is a stopping point before the final push to the summit. Walking along the stony summit ridge, you can see all the land around. It's a rewarding, fairly horizontal walk on the top ridge to the cross marking the peak. Below is a video montage of snaps of this fabled mountain taken now and during previous climbs. Click to see it enlarged.
Life Inside a Painting
This landscape has lured artists for centuries and been the subject of so many famous paintings, perhaps it is it no wonder that walking in and around it makes you think that life imitates art!
Visual art has a way of teaching us to look more keenly, see in different ways, and perhaps see more than expected. Cézanne's Mont Ste. Victoire is not just a mountain. It is a changing field of coloured planes, a template for a new way of looking and of seeing, an icon in art history, a symbol of a place and of a devotion. This is what it's like to live inside a painting. I start seeing the hills around me as Cézanne-hills, the sparks and swirls of light at different times of day as Van Gogh painted them, and the scenic moments in the landscape as Monet-like impressions or as polymorphous possibilities for Cubist forms.
Picasso chose to live his later years near Mt. Ste. Victoire, viewing the opposite side of the mountain to my view. The chateau he lived in is located in a basin valley in the village of Vauvenargues. I can only imagine the treasures it holds and the life stories lived inside.
Inspiration is Everywhere
Inspiration is everywhere. It's in the abundance of nature, in pace of agricultural rhythms, in the sensory variety of the sights, sounds, smells, and textures that weave through daily life. It's in the vineyards, olive groves, the now spent fields of lavender, the red and ochre earth you walk upon. The natural palette is gorgeously harmonious. The ground varies from luscious red-browns to an eye-dazzling range of rich yellows, set in perfect contrasts of deep and diminished sap-greens that slide into silvery olive tones, and blues to break your heart. All the natural pigments could make you as delirious as they might have done to Van Gogh.
Art is Everywhere
Art is everywhere and part of everyday cultural life. It isn't set apart as a culture-snob event. And it ranges in affordability from free to fee. Local museums seem to crop up everywhere. There are weekly announcements for exhibitions of visual arts, music, dance, recitations, theatre, acrobatics, performance art, traveling circuses, and fairs celebrating all manner of crafts. The local butcher asks if I've seen the new exhibition in the museum nearby. A neighbour recommends a show at a local winery. A friend recommends a dance recital, but it's sold out. I wish every home town had as much access to the arts and as much local interest for them.
Roussillon: an Adventure in Pigment
The nearby town of Roussillon, perched atop on of the largest ochre deposits in the world, is famous for its natural pigments, used by painters for centuries... and now I've picked up some too. The town, itself, embodies the pigments of its soil, seen in its structures and landscape..
These pigments range from deep browns, reds and dull yellow to bright oranges, pinks, reds, and sun-burnt yellows, all favoured by artists throughout history. Traces have been found as far back as the amazing prehistoric cave paintings in France. Although synthetic pigments have long since taken over the commercial trade, and the once thriving ochre industry has all but disappeared, the natural pigments for umbers, siennas, and yellow ochres are still available for purchase here.
Even more impressive than the town itself are the trails within its former quarries. The terrain has been structured for visitors, with sculpted landforms and colours all around and under your feet. It's easy to dip your finger into the earth and smudge some pigment onto paper or, as the urge hit me and many others, onto yourself. Beware: this non-toxic pigment really lasts, as prehistoric cave paintings confirm.
The Gastronomic Palate
"One does not live by bread alone." So true. But if one had to, France is the place to do it. For me, France has the BEST baguettes in all the world. And cheeses, too. I especially love the varieties of brébis or sheep cheeses. As Charles DeGaulle reputedly wondered, "How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?"
Food presentation is a "thing" in all of France, of course, so the food on the plate looks as good as it tastes. This concern with display occurs in the open-air markets as well as the even inexpensive restaurants. "Making a palette for the palate" is the pun I couldn't resist. Wine.... oh yes, you know, one could go on an on about that. Bottom line: it is all abundantly good, seems abundantly available, and abundantly affordable. The rosé varieties are particularly good here in the Bouche du Rhone.
Living History
The endurance of ways of life here have persisted across centuries of turmoil and war. You come across ancient ruins in almost every village and stonework dating back before the Caesars. The past is alive, along with the present. History is apparent even in street names in the region's main city of Aix-en-Provence. Names like Rue Verrerie/Anciano Carriero de la Jutarie, are written in both modern French and older Provençal (or Occitan). Traditions continue in the many fairs and local festivals marking local customs and products. History lives also in the daily life of people who value living well and do not rush: the well-prepared meal, the stylistic presentation, the attentively tended market stalls, the butcher who tells us not to miss a local art show It's in the famous artists who've lived in this regioin and paintings of this land that lure you to them.
Ordinary Life Becomes Extraordinary
Ordinary life becomes extraordinary for visitors here. Take shopping for daily goods as an example. It's so different here than my home routine of driving to big supermarkets and stocking up on a maximum of goods in a minimal time. Here, going to market is still a pleasure for our local neighbours, as well as us. One explores and learns which particular market days are best for certain products in nearby towns. Local vineyards and cheese-producing farms invite sampling their products. Food, clothes, household goods, are all available at outdoor markets Of course, there are also large department stores and supermarkets, and of course they are useful. But they don't seem to detract from the importance of local markets to daily life. These make even routine shopping seem less a chore and more an artful excursion. Such ordinary mindfulness reminds us that familiar routines needn't be dull.
Life Becomes Art
Art does something similar. It makes us look -- and to see things a bit differently. It adds to our interest by taking us away from our habitual, accustomed ways of seeing when it shows us an apple like we've never seen it before. Certainly, thousands of apples have been depicted across thousands of paintings. But a good painting of an apple is one that makes you take notice of it, shows you something different or special about it. Similarly, consciously living in a new location intensifies and differentiates experience, pulling it out of the lull of the ordinary. Much of daily life routines become exciting because we need to learn how drive new routes, shop differently, explore local places, listen to a different language, etc.
Learning how to go about things taken-for-granted back home becomes a series of adventures in daily living. Such sharpening of one's attention is bound to influence how one sees things: teaching us how we need actively to explore where we are, look carefully, listen, take a moment.. This practice changes one's perspectives by offering several different ways of looking at the same thing. Seeing multiple perspectives is not the easiest position for those needing to maintain confident or long-held opinions. Still, it's a reflectively open position that's quite valuable for life as well as art.
Art Becomes Life
I'm impressed by the attention given to public art and exhibitions everywhere I go. Art here is just another aspect of an attentive, creative way of living. Even my town (not an art centre) has a local vernissage every few months. The nearby village of Lourmarin, with only about 1,000 dwellers, boasts more than a dozen independent, active art galleries. This focus on art, so evident in the entire Provence region, seems to go along with a taste for reading and writing. Even in tiniest villages, you find busy independent bookstores and papeteries with their assortments of writing implements (lovely fountain pens!) and a selection of papers, the tangibles of a literate culture. Vintage books and pens are also displayed traditionally in weekly open-air market stalls.
The cultural support on all levels for art as part of life is abundantly clear here and adds to enjoyment.
Thinking of all the visual art I continue to enjoy, I realise I've collected an internal, private museum for myself over the years. It's based on all the artworks I've seen that have made some impression on me at different times in my life. The featured items change with time. I've tried to express this idea in my collages below (click far right of image to slide). I think the concept of an internal museum may fit many of us,
Making Your Mark as an Artist in France
I've visited so many nearby places, different galleries and events, and spoken with many people here, including art students, teachers, and local gallerists, that I'm convinced this region maintains a vital cultural connection to the arts. Art centres and interests abound not only in the central city of Aix-en-Provence, long known for its artistic and cultural life, but also in many tiny Provençal communities that have their own dedicated art spots and avid enthusiasts. Even so, emerging artists still typically take a long time to emerge into public recognition.
Some time ago, I interviewed Philippe, a mid-career artist/instructor in a workshop I attended. He gave me his overview of some challenges facing a painter who wants to make a living and gain recognition solely by art. His views turned to be not so different from the challenges facing Canadian artists. He said the smaller galleries don't do enough to promote their artists and the larger ones are business conglomerates that deal only with known artists or decide in common which few new ones to promote. Although Philippe shows his paintings in local galleries, the best promotion, he thought, was to have them in the big art fairs that cost a big chunk of money but also attract the big gallerists.
In contrast, "no problem" was the answer I got when asking the same question of younger Max, a frecent multimedia graduate of L'Ecole Superieure d'Art in Aix, who was then showing his intricate computer graphics at a group show promoted by the school. Max said he showed his work in all sorts of venues (not just galleries) in Belgium, France, and London, as well as having an internet presence with his abstract music. Aside from their artwork, is it their relative life positions or their different reference points for "success" that account for th econstrasting views of these two full-time artists?
Geography is Destiny?
We all absorb and are affected by our mainstream culture and the more specific sub-cultures we live in. Whether we're conscious of this or not, we're affected by what our culture tells us is good/bad, right/wrong. Even the contemporary art culture tells us what's hot and what's not. But, my different sense of the land here made me wonder, on a more concrete and earthy level, how much is the content and style of what we create related to our physical setting?
For plein-air artists, geography must matter a great deal. But what about abstract and studio-based artists, or those working from a more conceptual base? My personal experience tells me my work has been affected by living here. As example, just before arriving in France, I'd completed a series of semi-abstract paintings back shown in Canada. I was eager to continue with this series while in Provence. But after arriving here, Abundance (below) is the first painting I felt impelled to make. Why? I think it was just because of enjoying life in Provence and perhaps a bit by all those still life paintings by Cézanne (which mine looks nothing like). It took several more of this kind of painting before I could get to creating others.
One technical point for painters: working in acrylics here is very different from places like Vancouver. Because the climate is so much drier here, the paint dries almost immediately, so you have to adapt: use more media, lay out a smaller palette (even a wet one), paint more quickly and decisively, work wet-into-wet, do less in each painting session.
I found that creating collages best fit my current intent to capture a rush of new experiences I had. Shown below (click far right to slide images), these included a visit to an exhibition on Edvard Munch at one of my favourite large art museums, the d'Orsay in Paris. The second is based upon reading a great issue of Le Figaro on Proust. The last three are passing thoughts and sights.
Geography may not be destiny, but it sure affects how you live and what you chose to do, make, and create.
Field-Dependence/Independence
Thinking about the impact of local setting on one's work, I recalled the distinction made in psychology regarding field-dependent versus field-independent persons. The categories define two perceptual-cognitive styles: whether we're more influenced by the external context ( field dependent) or by internal cues (field independent). There are advantages to both. What impressed me (a generally field-independent person), is the extent to which I flipped in response to the rich and inviting external cues of this Provençal environment.
Aix-en-Provence
Entire books are devoted to Provence, a region that includes multiple micro-climates and cultural influences from Celtic and Roman to Catalonian and North African. Aix-en-Provence, its capital, is one of its handsomest towns, with its majestic Cours Mirabeau main street, it's grand fountain (one of largest and most recognizable in France), and its trendy people-watchers sitting in posh cafés dating back to 1792. The Deux Garçons is one of the oldest, and most famous, having been the choice for Piaff, Cocteau, even Churchill, as well as more current celebrities and local folk, past and present. We often snacked at the Deux G (it has an especially nice interior), but it's boarded up now (hopefully, under planned renovation)
I'm fond of Aix, this ancient and youthful town that welcomes foreigners but keeps its traditions alive. Like other towns in this region, Aix seems to have a historic ability, despite changes of fortune, to embrace l'art de vivre. Of the many photos of Provence I could share with you, here's one I took in Aix in November,1995, just after the terrorist shooting at a crowded club in Paris. Rather than shut down in mourning, the town chose to put on this celebration -- a defiant affirmation of life, celebrating in traditional costume an old Provençal dance with fife and drum.
Á bientôt, for now. Keep tuned to Creative Life News Hope you enjoy all you find en route!
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