Art Retreat 2013

silvery morning concert

My Annual Art Retreat for 2013 is complete.  It’s sad and yet exciting for now I move forward with everything I discovered.  I’m never disappointed by what shows up in God’s creation and it is always something different. 

I try to get out of my routine while here. . . .stay up a little later, sleep a little later, mix-up my meal times, give myself permission to be.  I read scripture, art books and magazines, research books and previous notes from past retreats and make new notes in my journal of discoveries.   I sketch and take notes in my sketch book and make painting sketches for future works.  

I’m grateful I have a good imagination for that also plays into my time.  I walk the beach in the morning and evening without my camera until the last day.  On that day I record those inspirations I discovered the previous days.  This year I discovered the Songs of the Sea.

In high school I learned to love music partly because of my concert band instructor and his passion for excellence in music.  I played the clarinet and competed with my best friend for first chair, a position I managed to sustain for awhile.  I learned discipline in practicing and study of scores of music and the language of sheet music.  Those memories came back to me this week.

bright afternoon concert

I imagined the ocean in concert with all its parts complementing one another:  the roaring forte of the ocean as a whole; the crescendo undulating rhythm of the splish-splashing white caps, the leisurely adagio water coming forward to the shore with the final pianissimo cadence of the foam swishing onto my toes. I don’t know that I ever played Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words but that’s what I imagined the ocean to be playing; a song without words.

I've posted just a few photos for your enjoyment of some of my discoveries.  Stay tuned as I try to put on canvas a series that may be titled:  Songs of the Sea; an anthem.  (listen to Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words Op 19 No 1 (Gortier) on www.youtube.com 

Then there were the other whimsical discoveries I always find.  It was a delightful three days of refreshment and inspiration.  I'm so grateful

bubble-bath

Henry Moore sculpture