I visited Rembrandt House in Amsterdam. It was a funky building, tall and narrow, crammed with tourists and the oddments of an eccentric but businesslike personality. His studio was lovely. It's a small room, a third the size of mine, with a display of powdered paints in one corner.
I found this display very inspiring. I've been thinking about the Dark Mountain project a lot recently; the idea that we need to rethink our metaphors about nature. It's not something to be conquered or to be worshipped from afar. We're it, and we're in it. There's a radical responsibility we have to nature, which is the same as the responsibility we have to ourselves. I'd like to express this in paint, somehow. Seeing Rembrandt's paints reminded me that there are clays and other non-ephemeral pigments within walking distance from me. Of course, mostly they're reddish and greyish, but still. After I flew home, I went to Daniel Smith and got some mineral powders in colors I don't have at home, and in the next few months will experiment with making oils and watercolors. Exactly the way Rembrandt did, oh yes.
I found this display very inspiring. I've been thinking about the Dark Mountain project a lot recently; the idea that we need to rethink our metaphors about nature. It's not something to be conquered or to be worshipped from afar. We're it, and we're in it. There's a radical responsibility we have to nature, which is the same as the responsibility we have to ourselves. I'd like to express this in paint, somehow. Seeing Rembrandt's paints reminded me that there are clays and other non-ephemeral pigments within walking distance from me. Of course, mostly they're reddish and greyish, but still. After I flew home, I went to Daniel Smith and got some mineral powders in colors I don't have at home, and in the next few months will experiment with making oils and watercolors. Exactly the way Rembrandt did, oh yes.
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