"The moving brilliance of the silvery wave"

"De bewegende schittering van de zilveren golf"
oil on canvas
20 x 140 cm
painted on location - Sunday 25 April 2010

SOLD



Back to a theme which inspires me very much these days, The Sea. I'm going to use a quote that speaks most poetically on this subject, by the great French painter, Odilon Redon (1840 - 1916), written July 3rd 1875 (some of you may remember that I already quoted this text back in July 2009);

"You hear it nearby and it attracts you. The sea is here, magnificent, imposing and superb with its obstinate clamor. Imperious and terrible clamor, it makes strange remarks. The voices of the infinite are before you. Nothing of human life.... Here, the immense beach, undefined, of which the edges are mingling with the sea itself, with the day and the light, with the moving brilliance of the silvery wave. Painters, go look at the sea. There you will see the marvels of color and light, the sparkling sky. You will feel the poetry of the sands, the charms of the air, of the imperceptible hue. You will return from there stronger and full of great accents. Poets, go and see this beach. You will have to sing the mystery of infinity. On these shores you will discover intense solitude. Musicians go listen to its harmony. All of you, finally, who are tired of wordly life, all of you who are oppressed by the weight of days, all of you who work unceasingly in the womb of our miseries, all you men of the fields and humble people-go and breathe in the strength and faith of fertile nature, our mother and friend."

Don't know about you, but I get goose bumps on my skin when I read that! And let me tell you, don't I know about those "imperceptible hues" ! The North Sea is loaded with them. Sometimes colors beyond my wildest imagination, confront me and demand of me to formulate hues on my palette that are not even registered in most accepted color charts. Does this challenge me, you bet. But that is precisely why this theme excites the artist in me. And in turn, my only desire is that I may faithfully capture for you, the connoisseur of the fine art of painting, a moment of magic and beauty that takes place on the humble shoreline of the North Sea, here in The Lowlands.