TURN, TURN, TURN, ( Giri, Giri ,Giri ) week 8

TURN, TURN, TURN

( Giri, Giri, Giri )

Sunflowers on Appledore

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 32" x 26"

In October, they shut Appledore Island down. Autumn drops heavy in New England. The scarlet flames of color in the trees are like the anguished scream of nature about to extinguish herself. Dreaded winter will come, long, dark and cold.

But now it is harvest time. The air is still warm and the sunflowers are at their peak. In Italy, they are called  Girasole. Girare is the verb 'to turn', and Sole means sun, so the name connotes motion, a turning towards the sun. Turn they do, I can attest that in painting them, they behave like an inexperienced model who constantly fidgets in a pose, never still.

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

Q.      Hey Jim!   Whats with the cloth......again? You paint flowers n' stuff wicked good but I keep seeing the yellow cloth. Its old fashion and kinda boring. I dunno, what gives?

A.     Huh?

THE MOVEMENT OF WATER

Hydrangeas on the Amoskeag ( detail)

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

The textile goods produced at the Amoskeag Mills in the 19th Century were world renown. Almost every field in rural New Hampshire had a flock of Merino sheep whose wool was destined for the mills, cotton flowed from the south.

In Italy, during the Medici's, Florence rose to her glory on two things, banking and wool. The Florence, Flanders route meant that amongst other thing, artists could see each others work and ideas were exchanged.

Thematically, the woven textile is a reference to the original Amoskeag Mills. Pandora was a well known textile manufacturer and a recognizable landmark for travelers heading north to the mountains of New Hampshire.

There is also a more subtle reference....to water. The cloth and flowers sit over the Amoskeag waterfalls, so the cloth cascades over the wall to counter the unseen falls behinds it.

About the cloth......

BUSATTI

I Tessuti di Anghiari

( The Textiles of Anghiari )

I first saw this particular cloth at a shop in Arezzo while in Tuscany hunting down the Piero della Francesca Trail. I immediately fell in love with it and often use it as my "go to" fabric in painting. During our last stay in Italy, Elizabeth and I, along with friends Jim and Debbie, made a pilgrimage to the Tuscan village of Anghiari to visit the flagship factory, Busatti.

For more information on our trip to Anghiari and Busatti factory click on:

APONOVICH and JOHANSSON At Home and Away

APPLEDORE, Isles of Shoals ( week 5 )

APPLEDORE,  ISLES OF SHOALS

"It must be so nice to be able to paint on an island off the coast of New England...."

"Appledore ain't exactly Martha's Vineyard, lady."

West Wind, Isles of Shoals, 1904

Childe Hassam

The Isles of Shoals are a group of islands lying ten miles off the coast of New England and are divided between Maine and New Hampshire. Appledore, Smuttynose and Duck belong to Maine, Star and White to New Hampshire. It is not easy to go ashore on Appledore. Both Cornell and the University of New Hampshire have research facilities on the Island. Beth and I managed to hitch a ride on a supply boat out of Portsmouth, NH.

BLACK BACKS AND MUSKRATS

Appledore Basket

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

In many ways Appledore is not a comfortable place. Hundreds of Black Backed gulls fill the air with their screams. Don't go there when they are fledging, they will attack you. Their white droppings are matched by the brown of the muskrats that roam the island, fearless and nearly blind. Poison Ivy rambles everywhere. Rogue waves have been known to sweep people off the rocks. Great Whites feed on the seals off Duck Island. Yes, the wild is still here.

AN ISLAND GARDEN

Poppies, 1891

Childe Hassam

" Like the musician, the painter, the poet, and the rest, the true lover of flowers is born, not made."

                                                                                             Celia Thaxter

I had heard of Appledore as the summer home of Celia Thaxter, the Nineteenth Century poet and celebrated gardener who would host artists and intellectuals in her home. The American Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam was one of the more noteworthy and spent some twenty summers on the island.

DEATH BY WATER

Little Pond, Appledore

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

The Little Pond, Appledore,  1890

Childe Hassam

Thaxter had a charming summer cottage near her father's large hotel on the island. Many people from Boston would travel to the island to take in the therapeutic "airs". The Boston painter, William Morris Hunt, suffering from depression came to Thaxter's cottage on advice from his doctor. One morning she found his body floating in a pond behind her house, an apparent suicide. Eventually fire swept through both her father's hotel and later her cottage, leaving only foundation rubble. Her garden survived and is currently being restored. Appledore has a melancholy side.

ON THE OTHER HAND

Appledore in Fog

James Aponovich

oil on canvas, 20" x 22"

Beth and I came to see the garden and to paint it. It was a brilliant, sunny day and as I painted, I struggled with the buildings that survived the fire, as well as

 the large watchtower, a remnant of World War II.

Earlier, as we were approaching the island, I had noticed something on the horizon. I knew all too well, having once lived on the coast of Maine.....fog. The fog banks that roll in from the Gulf of Maine are thick and dangerous. Mariners say, "the ceiling has dropped," and so it had.......

But it erased the watchtower and softened the buildings, I loved it. It reminded me of a painter from Prouts Neck, Maine

The Artist's Studio in an Afternoon Fog, 1894

Winslow Homer

They will close Appledore soon for the winter. The ice and snow are too harsh, but come next season I will return whenever I need to wash my vision with sea, rock and gulls. Just watch where you step.

Agapanthus, Appledore

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

THE LANDSCAPE OF TIME AND OF TIME LOST (week 4)

THE LANDSCAPE OF TIME AND OF TIME LOST

The landscape of Italy ( here I am referring to Tuscany and Umbria) is not necessarily overpowering. Romantically breathtaking, yes, but it is too refined and well thought out for high drama. The land has been sculpted by a succession of hands for thousands of years. The layers of numerous epochs reveal themselves subtly. An Etruscan wall borders a path trod by pilgrims in the 10th Century. It is a grand palimpsest  of time, but if you seek raw splendor, then you must go north to the Alps or better yet, cross the ocean to the "New World."

CHASING EDEN

Little Harbor ( New Hampshire)

James Aponovich

oil on canvas

Early in the 19th Century, European artists grew bored with this groomed, orderly landscape. They had read Rousseau and they wanted to embrace the primitive, aboriginal eden, untouched by the European model. They came to America, primarily to the coast of New England and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here, they thought they had found the raw, savage nature they were seeking.... until someone said,"the mountains are better out West.".......Bye.

THE FALLOW LAND

What happens when the vision of the landscape dies? We, in the United States, have always been interested in the next, better thing. We are always ready to drop what we have and move on to the next chapter. Our attention span is measured  not in minutes but seconds. A landscape thrives in direct proportion to the love and need we imbue it with. When abandoned and we turn our backs to it, the wild returns. By the wild, I am not referring to the trees reclaiming the land, but something more sinister, highways, malls, fun parks, and fast food joints.

LANDS END AND A BIT BEYOND

North Wind Clearing: Appledore Island

James Aponovich

Oil on canvas

The vision still breathes, but you must look for it, you have to seek it out. One such place lies seven miles off the New England coast, again, on the 43 Parallel, The Isles of Shoals. The original wild is still very much evident there.

Let us make our visit.

To be continued........

PANICALE HORTENSIA PAINTING UPDATE

Panicale, Hortensia ( in progress)
James Aponovich

Uh Oh....Heaven and Earth ain't workin' together. It's getting away from me a bit and I think I know why. You can paint from your mind or you can paint from your heart, rarely both. This is like sucking on a lemon. I'll see if I can fix it.



AMOSKEAG HYDRANGEA UPDATE

Amoskeag, Hydrangea ( underpainting/ in progress)
James Aponovich

"Va bene!"  The Italians would say. It is going well. It has taken a while to get the East Side washed in. Now, onto the West Side.