Between two realities :: Entre deux réalités

“The purposeful wandering that precedes actually sitting down to paint is often just as important and pleasurable as putting paint on paper. Painting is a process of deliberately moving back and forth between the two worlds, and the pictures that result, if they are any good, serve as the bridges that connect them”.
— Tom Hoffman

My greatest difficulty in the painting process is finding “what” to paint. Sometimes I wish for the most perfect setting that I have never painted before and end up painting a tree or a fence. The process of finding what to paint is an enjoyable and somewhat anguishing one also… I set out in my car hoping to have something pop up in my eyes and crying “paint me, paint me!”. During this time this I am floating between two realities and many call this state a transitional one, in which I float between the reality of my day-to-day life and the translation of the form/content that I am perceiving through my eyes and that runs through my paintbrush. I often feel that when I am painting I end up in a state that of “flow” in which I forget where I am and time disappears.

Ma plus grande difficulté dans le processus de création d’une peinture est de trouver “quoi” peindre. Des fois j’espère pour la scène la plus pittoresque qui soit et je peins en fin de compte une clôture ou un arbre. Le processus de trouver est très agréable et angoissant en même temps… je pars en automobile en espérant que quelque chose va crier: “Peins-moi, peins-moi!”  Pendant ce temps je flotte entre deux réalités… que beaucoup appellent un état de transition entre la réalité de la vie de tous les jours et la traduction de la forme/contenu que je perçois au travers de mes yeux… et qui court vers mon pinceau. Je me retrouve souvent dans un état de “flow” où j’oublie où je suis et le temps disparaît.

Paper: Pentalic Sketchbook
Fountain Pen:
Ink: Noodlers’ Lexington Grey
Colours: Aureolin Yellow, Raw Sienna,Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna & French Ultramarine
Location: St-Clet, Québec, Canada (from a reference photograph)