Dear Artist,
Last weekend, a ten-year-old friend took me to summer camp drop-off. We snaked a sea-hugging road through mountain passes while she described the intricacies of geocaching, bouldering, trail riding and ukulele. At bedtime without her Kindle, she told me she’ll be whispering in a cabin of seven others, with two teenaged counsellors on the other side of a soundproof curtain. After Starbucks, the highway narrowed to a dirt road and then a mulch path, where a Hawaiian-shirted adolescent wearing a wooden name badge motioned us with his clipboard into a parking space.
oil on canvas
by John F. Carlson (1875 – 1947)
At check-in, my friend dropped her duffle and crossed over into time stoppage. Camp showed no signs of this decade or millennium. We stepped up into “Cloud Burst” and surveyed a set of bunk beds and wooden shelving. I examined the soundproof curtain. Outside, behind and all around the playing fields and volleyball net, health station and mess hall, a deep forest spread out in veined pathways and no pathways. I imagined its clearings and canopies and the yet-to-be-thought-of ideas waiting there. I remembered my own chances in an Emily Carr-like thicket on Cortes Island, where second-growth Cedars breathed their mysteries and the secrets of previous wanderers.
oil on canvas
by John F. Carlson
Back in the studio, I opened the doors and let the bunnies hop closer. I took to my own nearby woods where, in a clearing, a pair of Golden Eagles shared a catch from the estuary. Summer sidled up and gave an endless evening of moving light — and in it, the time and space for wandering.
Sincerely,
Sara
oil painting by John F. Carlson
PS: “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, / There is a rapture on the lonely shore, / There is society, where none intrudes, / By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: / I love not Man the less, but Nature more.” (Lord Byron)
Esoterica: Structuring unstructured time is a summer art form designed for artists and bestowed upon ten-year-olds. Make a fierce commitment to localized play, load up on materials and make cuts to the social calendar. Embrace the microcosm of your local green space. Look at the calendar and make a note of the beginning and end of this time. “Play is the work of the child,” said Maria Montessori. This summer, might we all be the child?
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“To the artist, the forest is an asylum of peace and dancing shadows.” (John F. Carlson)
Against the Walloil on canvas
24 x 30 inches, 2017
Featured Artist
My aim as a painter is to bring to life a slice of the world as I experience it. Light, color and form are my vocabulary.
27 Comments
how charming and winsome and inviting! I will try to play more.
Lovely, Sara, and the Byron quote is one of my favorites. I may just go wile away a few hours. . . thank you!
Thank you for reminding us to play, wander and place into our midst unstructured time where creativity can capture us.
Sara, you food me today. I always try to figure out whether it is you writing or one of your dear father’s older musings. Today, I suppose given the subject matter, I was quite sure it was your dad. Thanks as always for a bit of artistic joy early in the day!
How lovely to read this on a hot summer morning…Thank you
Thank you for this one, Sara…the last paragraph slowed me right down to where I could actually “feel” being in the deep winter woods of Carlson’s paintings! You made my day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank YOU! I forget that all of life is an action and we decide what to make it. Who was it that said walking is just us falling forward over and over and catching ourselves?
Hugely important and one of the gifts to myself I find most difficult to nurture. Thank you for the reminder, Sara.
Sara, this brought back memories and created longing! Well done!
Beautiful letter and stunning art by John F. Carlson. Thank you Sara! What a perfect quote “To the artist, the forest is an asylum of peace and dancing shadows.” (John F. Carlson)
Thank You , another way to make sens for our life.
Your letter brought a quickening to my spirit, and then the memories of youth resounded in my thoughts like a welcome visitor on this, my 64th birthday. Thank you
Happy Birthday, Sharon…thank you for your friendship. S
This letter was serendipitous. I was just driving home from town, noticing a couple of kids riding their bikes along the road. On one side was the Columbia River and on the other lots of wild flowers were blooming. I thought that it was so wonderful. For kids to have two whole months off from school to enjoy these kind of days. I hope that the idea of cutting back on summer holidays, in favour of spreading the time off over the rest of the year never takes hold.
Thank you for posting John F Carlsons landscapes. I pulled out his book “Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting” and will start to reread it. Excellent book.
GREAT TO SEE PHOTOS OF JOHN F. CARLSON….HIS BOOK “CARLSON’S GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING, HAS BEEN MY BIBLE FOR MANY YEARS O F LANDSCAPE PAINTING, IN FACT I WAS FORTUNATE TO FIND A NICE SIZED FALL SCENE OF HIS YEARS AGO, AT AN ESTATE SALE….IT HAS BEEN IN THE ENTRY WAY OF MY HOME FOR AT LEAST TWO DECADES…….MY STUDIO HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY ASYLUM OF PEACE…..
Sara, thank you for the gift of this letter. It’s exactly what I needed to think about today. Blessings.
Loved the whole letter, but especially, “Summer sidled up”. What a wonderful image!
Yes, if we do not spend all the time we can outdoors in summer, we atrophy too much in winter and cannot enjoy its quiet time for drawing inward and creating what was conceived in summer. That’s what the Canadian climate is about.
I agree with you Helen 100%.
This message is so delightful…I felt like I took a ‘mental vacation’ reading it and seeing the attached beautiful paintings!
Thank you, thank you for this winsome message. I look forward to your newsletters and appreciate your visual art of storytelling. You brighten my day! From an amateur artist in ON
Thank you, Sara, for this reverie and Carlson’s evocative oils. Ah, that the essence of childhood would remain forever….
Ha! My 10 year old grandson will soon be here to make each day the art of play! And just when I’m gripping life and work too tightly… perfection!
Thank you, Sara! I loved this post and the paintings!
Thank you for this wonderful message and inspiration. Nature is a sanctuary for me as well. It’s pleasant to imagine so many who make art playing in the asylum of nature. This place of peace is even more restorative as I age.
Sara!
Reading this was like a breath of fresh air! Thank you so much for this posting. I could picture the forest, old cabin and imagined a summer of discovering new paths! I needed this so very much! Oh and John Carlson’s paintings, perfection!
Thank you and Happy Summer!