January 4, 2010

watercolor, three vintage bitters bottles

It's cold and gray outside, and last night I was inspired to paint a few of the little bitters bottles I put on my bedroom windowsill for a touch of color. I'd like to know more about them. They have great names like ruby ball and claw, cobalt waterman, green mini corncob. I wanted to get going, start painting, after a few weeks of sloth. The transparent glass was a challenge, but fun to try. I especially liked the way the colors bled into the shadows beneath the bottles.

Here's a poem by Wendell Berry, a writer I have begun to read in the past year. He talks about writing poetry, but the ideas could be applied to painting as well.

How To Be a Poet

Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

i

Make a place to sit down.

Sit down. Be quiet.

You must depend upon

affection, reading, knowledge,

skill—more of each

than you have—inspiration,

work, growing older, patience,

for patience joins time

to eternity. Any readers

who like your poems,

doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath

the unconditioned air.

Shun electric wire.

Communicate slowly. Live

a three-dimensioned life;

stay away from screens.

Stay away from anything

that obscures the place it is in.

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.

Of the little words that come

out of the silence, like prayers

prayed back to the one who prays,

make a poem that does not disturb

the silence from which it came.