crystal palace
day 52
bogdan mihăilă
the glow of the raw wheat’s green from the beginning of the winter under the harsh and white sunset light is a thing which i haven’t encountered neither in spring nor in summer. it takes only this tone of green and everything besides becomes only simple harmony in gray, black and pale white. this pure emerald green undermines everything_1
the beginning of the winter uncovers the most in a field with plowed earth, the earthly matter. its interior, invisible forces work together like a mechanism and become the reality of everything which one sees. the clouds-covered sun creates a constant and neutral atmosphere which, in this case, seems to sharpen even more than in direct sunlight the contours and faces of the lumps of plowed earth. it perfectly suggests the touch and dampness of matter_2
i want to begin the drawing with large gestures and a sense of breadth which need to be seen from the first glance and, in the end, nothing to remain hidden or covered, to leave room for everything to be seen, everything which composes nature needs to be at first hand noticeable, every line and detail needs to show itself freely_3
i’ve started a study in pen and ink of a ripened red cole field in a full sunset light in contre-jour. the light immediately creates a rhythm in the cole bushes which come together in closed, vertical shapes which burst forth from the vast mass of the field to the sky, either strongly lit or in profound shadow. this phenomenon sets a natural order in the whole field, an order which i try to structure in drawing and in the end to be as much as it can be noticeable_4
the most difficult problem seems to be keeping the minuteness of detail and the conjuring of that spontaneous unity which holds everything together. i started this drawing with an acute verve, large and ample movements with the black chalk, but everything eventually resumed to the small, detailed volumes and planes of the lump of earth in light and shadow from the foreground. everything begins to add up in a certain vibration of the drawing, but the large forms of muted gray which i strive to represent seem to be lost in contours, shadows, in the small scale of the whole_5
a field in full perspective which races rapidly to the horizon. the gray is magnificent and structures all the surface in isolated forms. this should be the purpose, isolating and individualizing the different shapes of silver and velvet grays which come together into a single, whole and simple harmony which one perceives from the first glance_6
the small improvised outhouses from the peasant’s backyards outline their shapes on the sky and trees backgrounds which consist of silver gray, muted and putrid gray, silk black, shades of pale and dumb blue and dark ochre shaded with green. all of this relative tones of color don’t exist in reality, they are created by the piercing, gloomy winter sunset light_7
i realize more and more it is about movement and maintaining the sensation which resides in me in front of a landscape, unaltered, uneducated, raw but sincere, as well as it is about the first, instinctive gesture which comes to me when i attack the drawing_8
between the absolute values of the white-glowing winter sky and the muted black of intense shadows, lie all the half-tones and half-shadows of the constructed outhouses of the backyard which create all the visual order and logic_9