The Sweet Afternoon
The sweet afternoon was among the pieces I’ve admired the most at the De Chirico exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan this November. Definitely one of the most mind blowing exhibitions I’ve seen in a couple of years. It is that feeling that you may go home from the museum, but the artworks come, in a way , with you. I believe it is a huge privilege to be able to see artists works from a lifetime span in a continuous setting , curated and explained in a most fascinating way. I guess the closest approximation of what a talk with the artist could have been. And this could have been a tremendously interesting conversation. But then, on the other hand, how could a painter ever tell more as his painting can? Even more so as de Chirico is definitely a painter of solitude. And the solitude is the feeling I bear with me, too, all the time. It is the state I love and need the most when I work. It is the feeling I need to contemplate, It is the ultimate state of mind giving me peace. I guess this is the reason I love de Chirico painting that much. In The Sweet Afternoon the solitude is literally inhabiting the lonely piazza, a certain enigma of afternoon siesta is in the air. The trembling of the hot air in the piazza comes just to the open window where biscuits wait, neatly arranged on the tray, suggesting the warm proximity of somebody. Mediterranean siesta is the time of the afternoon when heat empties the piazzas, streets and parks. when people spend a couple of hours at home, hidden before the heat, public life disappears and turns towns into great solitude. My still life evolved fromthe blue tray and biscuits. Mine are biscuits with lemon glaze I’ve backed , and there are my violets on the table, for I always have to have flowers around me. And I have to have brushes, palette knifes and tubes of oil color. All that arranged on my table by the window, together with the ticket from de Chirico exibition in Milan. The view offers a landscape that continues into the green color of the table. Just my way of solitude.
Pictures above:
The Sweet Afternoon, Tamara Jare after de Chirico, 2019, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
The Sweet Afternoon, Il pomeriggio soave (Le Doux Après-midi), de Chirico, 1916, oil in canvas, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, Venice. Photo taken by me at the de Chirico exibition in Palazzo Reale, Milano.
Self portrait in black blouse
Self portrait in black blouse, oil on canvas –
made at the time my dear friend passed away, I was so deeply sad, with that black sadness sleeping on my shoulders, there seemed nothing on the horisont, only some bright memories sparkling as small patches of vivid color among my black shirt ruffles…
Forest path oil on canvas
Forest path oil on canvas abstract landscape was painted this summer. It feels strange to me how long it took me to paint it. I basically knew what I wanted to make. This picture of the forest path near my home is in my head since I can remember. We used to walk it with my late mother, with my family, with my dog, as kids we used to play there. As I close my eyes I can see this path….I painted this canvas ”from inside”, relying on the photo I made just for certain details. But otherwise the Forest path oil on canvas painting was growing by itself, once started I couldn’t end, it was like all years of memories guiding my brush…..I was only concentrated to pick the right colors, to make the correct composition….
Painting this contemporary still life oil on canvas was a real joy. For this small nature morte I used palette knife and brushes to capture a Rudbeckia bouquet from my garden. Yellow color of flowers and green color of the table cloth were so strong, and there was a pink vase, all together making a vivid nature morte composition. I wanted to keep this contemporary still life oil on canvas simple and clean. Playing with textures and color main aim was to represent joy of summer colors. Note the patterns of the table cloth, the trembling background and strong yellow flowers arranged with some grasses. And the blue patches, just to mirror the blue sky….. And an interesting detail, the pattern used in the green table cloth appears also in some of my Garden series watercolors. Check the previous blog post: Garden with blue colors. Thinking about the table cloth representing garden and the garden being just a table cloth with patterns of nature…..
Bouquet still life
August bouquet
August is the time when summer turns toward warmer colors,preparing for autumn to come. There is still all that colorfulness in the air. Garden is as a big bouquet on its own. But all the colors are, little by little, loosing the sharpness of early summer, when all the promises were still in the air. Second half of the summer bears with it that certainty of coming September, ripe apples, end of summer holidays and fall colors of the trees… I loved painting that simple perception of the tranquility and transience of an August late afternoon, of the colorful flowers from the garden, off all the yellows of the summer days caught in a glimpse of a bouquet I made for the vintage glass vase. I wanted to get that feeling of trembling summer light, warm as summer can be, catching the viewer in the vertigo of August colors, just to make him remember it was a hot summer day……
Butterfly
I should like to present myself to the young painters of the year 2000 with the wings of a butterfly.
Pierre Bonnard