Yesterday I went for a walk with Hugo. As he often does, he fell asleep on me in the carrier. When this happens, I usually try and walk around for a while, making sure he gets at least 45 minutes to sleep soundly. I know that if I tried to transfer him from the carrier to anything else, he would wake up so it's only fair to him.
On my walk, I decided to pop into the Newcastle Art Gallery to catch the current exhibition before it closes on Sunday and wow, am I glad I went. Illumination the art of Phillip Wolfhagen left me breathless and awed. I only wished I was able to sit down and contemplate but I had to keep moving.
Luminous is the word that comes to mind. Wolfhagen's almost abstract landscape paintings capture a quality of light reminiscent of Turner. Low horizon lines freeing most of the canvas for luminous clouds and skies over half-lit landscapes or turbulent seas.
One of my favourite works was a series of long vertical panels with a dark mass in the bottom of the canvas and the rest taken up by the sky. The work, titled, The First Five Days of April, shows the transformation through light of a single landscape, same but different each day.
I have always felt this way about living by the sea or the ocean and figure that this is why a 'view' of the ocean is such a prized commodity. A living painting, always framed the same way but different from one moment to the next, somehow always surprising, never boring.
Maybe the work of Phillip Wolfhang resonates especially loudly at the moment because this kind of variation on a theme type of routine has also become an integral part of my life with Hugo. Every day is 'same same but different', and definitely always surprising.
Apparently babies thrive on routine, and I would extend this to adults. However, my life as a parent is to try and maintain that routine for Hugo, while he catches me off balance at every turn. One day, a nap maestro (Rose) and the next, full of beans until he hits a wall of tiredness. One day calm and smily, the next a grizzly ball of dissatisfaction.
One day, the ocean is as flat as a lake and the next, it is turbulent and gusty... It's still the same ocean and it's still beautiful. It's just really unpredictable and it is this sense of the unexpected that I must embrace to thrive.
On my walk, I decided to pop into the Newcastle Art Gallery to catch the current exhibition before it closes on Sunday and wow, am I glad I went. Illumination the art of Phillip Wolfhagen left me breathless and awed. I only wished I was able to sit down and contemplate but I had to keep moving.
Luminous is the word that comes to mind. Wolfhagen's almost abstract landscape paintings capture a quality of light reminiscent of Turner. Low horizon lines freeing most of the canvas for luminous clouds and skies over half-lit landscapes or turbulent seas.
One of my favourite works was a series of long vertical panels with a dark mass in the bottom of the canvas and the rest taken up by the sky. The work, titled, The First Five Days of April, shows the transformation through light of a single landscape, same but different each day.
I have always felt this way about living by the sea or the ocean and figure that this is why a 'view' of the ocean is such a prized commodity. A living painting, always framed the same way but different from one moment to the next, somehow always surprising, never boring.
Maybe the work of Phillip Wolfhang resonates especially loudly at the moment because this kind of variation on a theme type of routine has also become an integral part of my life with Hugo. Every day is 'same same but different', and definitely always surprising.
Apparently babies thrive on routine, and I would extend this to adults. However, my life as a parent is to try and maintain that routine for Hugo, while he catches me off balance at every turn. One day, a nap maestro (Rose) and the next, full of beans until he hits a wall of tiredness. One day calm and smily, the next a grizzly ball of dissatisfaction.
One day, the ocean is as flat as a lake and the next, it is turbulent and gusty... It's still the same ocean and it's still beautiful. It's just really unpredictable and it is this sense of the unexpected that I must embrace to thrive.
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man ..." (More Heraclitus)
ReplyDeleteI wish you were here to see this exhibition. It's really beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I would love it and I'm just sorry to read that the funding of the Newcastle Art Gallery has indeed been sacked:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/distant-vistas-in-the-art-of-philip-wolfhagen/story-fn9n8gph-1226681474180