They Gathered ar Sunset. May 29, 2010

Ah, Tombstones at sunset. Such ironic solace.

Back from France, staying with Eringer's family in St. John's Wood, London. I had just enough time to squeeze out this painting before the sun set on us all.

They Gathered at Sunset.
10x8 oil/panel 2003
Collection of Mary Henson

Time for Toombstones. St. John's Wood. May 28, 2010

Tombstones as still life.

My thoughts: now...don't move! Spirits laughing and asking me questions... Please, I need to concentrate.

Silence, again. (they were very cooperative that day).

St. Johns Wood, London, 2003

Starry Night Painter. May 27, 2010

Here's my homage to Van Gogh.

Even though he wasn't allowed outside the walls of the Asylum at night, nor allowed to paint with candles during his internment, I chose to picture him from my experience; painting freely, his fascination of the nocturnal world.

I guess you could say we became kindred spirits of sorts.

I have one or two more paintings of him as a subject which I would like to do some day when I become a better, more mature artist. Until then, I will keep communing with the past masters, and listening to the silence.

"Starry Night Painter"
22x18 oil/canvas
2008

Collection of Mary Henson
www.surrealbounce.blogspot.com

Starry Night Painter Underpainting May 26, 2010

The day arrived when I decided to paint in homage of Vincent Van Gogh.

Working from memory, of being on location outside Vincent's Asylum. I used the photo from yesterday's blog, and drew in the composition on a toned canvas. I used the two moonlight paintings as reference to capture the feeling of the night when I painted there back in 2003.

I rented, "Lust for Life" and watched Kirk Douglas, playing of Vincent Van Gogh, paint some nocturnes. He had candles afixed on top of his straw hat!

I asked my painter friend to pose for me, sketched a picture of him on my canvas, then turned him into Vincent.

I mixed up my palette based on those two paintings, and began to paint...

Asylum Night Spook. May 25, 2010

I love how shapes come together in the night. Not all is explained; things are in silhouette, and my imagination takes off!

This vision was just to the right of the image from yesterday's blog. I didn't need Eringer to creep up behind me and go BOO!! What was I looking at, a skull?

Well, it was creepy, so I got the idea that some day, I would paint a painting honoring Vincent: painting his famous painting, "A Starry Night". and I would use this image as reference, as a back drop.

Sometimes I see too much...

St. Paul des Maison Mental Hospital
Near St. Remy, France. Winter 2003

Asylum Night, St. Remy, May 24, 2010

It was getting late, and the moon was high. I was motivated to be lurking in the shadows outside the main entry to the Asylum.

I remember seeing the movie, "Lust for Life" staring Kirk Douglas as Vincent Van Gogh. There is a scene where he is being delivered to the Asylum in a horse and carriage; right to this gate. This timeless gate.

Many have entered here, some exit.

More silence, snow, and moonlight; and undisturbed night. Patterns of the moon light casting shadows across the road creeping slowly and deliberately before me. Somewhere behind this gate true genius was contained and studied for a brief period.

Van Gogh's imagination could not be stopped, or cropped. He continues to influence generations of creative thinkers, encouraging the avaunt Gard to stride out into the unknown.

Not much has changed over the years except for our understanding of mental illness can be embraced as a divine teacher.

Asylum Night
10x8 oil/panel
Collection of Robert Eringer

Moonlight Madness May 23,2010

It was cold, with blue light. The shadows were dark. Dead Quiet.

I chose this subject to paint because the gates at the Asylum were locked; (there was no getting back in).

I was on the outside looking in.

Oh, there was activity though. The lights were on, inside the room with baredwindows.Shadows would pass across the windows from time to time. The warm orange interior light in contrast with the blue moonlight added to the theme of madness.

It was during the silence I thought I heard voices wafting in the fog coming across the field next to me, where the rubble of Roman ruins lay. It was a good wine Eringer and I shared earlier that evening. (It must have had an affect on my auditory senses).

Because of the overall blue moonlight, I toned the board red so as to make a violet tonal harmony from a distance.

My thoughts: This is the same direction of sky that Van Gogh saw out of his cell window every night. Because the moon was so bright there were hardly any stars about, but there were a few; enough to put in to my painting.

I finished the painting, snapped a photo, then made my way across the field towards the entry gate to the asylum to do my second painting when a car approached; coming down the long, one hundred yard driveway in the darkness, I Popped out from the shrubs, in front of the car, near the Asylum gate and the driver slammed on his brakes, (in dramatic fashion), put the car in reverse, and quickly backed away in reverse, all the way back to the main road leading to St. Remy.

Guess I scared him. (So what if I was dressed in all black winter gear with a Russian Winter hat with flashlight attached!). Outside the walls of the Asylum, I wasn't lurking, I was working!

Silent Night, St. Paul des Maison
14x11, oil/board
collection of Robert Eringer

An Ear in Provence: Listening to the French (Tachydidaxy Travelogue) by Robert Eringer and James Harper (Hardcover - Nov. 2003)

For further reading:

http://surrealbounce.blogspot.com/2010/05/slim-agile-man-wearing-
sweaty-tee-shirt.html