Oh Alexander

Thursday, November 5

My Ostraka:  Odyssey I:ii
This Alexander portrait was among about 6 watercolors of him I started in Thessaloniki.

Lady bugs are zooming about in the sunlight, one landed on my computer.  An  unidentified bird is warbling and I only know the calls of cardinals, wrens, robins, and those mighty crows.  Oh, how can I forget blue jays.  So this bird got closer the longer I sat in place, but no luck catching a glimpse through the pines.  Only the ladybugs are fearless, zooming around in the sunlight, landing on my keyboard.  I love them.

I have been using images from antiquity from a long time.  Alexander the Great first appeared in my work sometime around 2001 or so.  I was attracted to Andre Malraux’s book, Archaic Greek Art and I found this compelling sculpture of Alexander which is in the Archeology Museum of Istanbul.  Fat chance of ever seeing the full-length marble sculpture in person. 

Thank you Professor Xenis! It came to pass I came to Greece in 2006. I was staying while in Thessaloniki, with an American-born hostess, Kathy Majeski  She lived in Turkey and Greece since graduating from college in Illinois.  I went with her to Istanbul for a week and finally saw my Alexander.  This famous portrait sculpture will stop you in your tracks.  Alexander was beautiful, all his portraits-whether on coins, in bronze or marble-indicate this.  He was a Macedonian and he conquered the world.

Tuesday, November 3, Leaves Falling

My Ostraka:  History IV: xlii

I am sitting on my leaf-strewn deck, a fine oak tree is looking over my right shoulder and all around me, those rusting sounds of leaves, branches, all these things of nature saying good-bye.  A crow has landed on the topmost branch of one of my pines, another in the pine tree right in front of me, another cawing from the neighbor’s yard. I throw a stone in their direction as my sympathies are with cardinals, sparrows, wrens, not with these dark predators.  Oak leaves start drifting onto my summer table; I couldn’t ask for a more idyllic setting under which to write.

I started getting jazzed by the shape of oak leaves, after finishing my first Alexander the Great watercolor I featured in my November 2 post.  I made several sheets of sumi ink studies of oak leaves, just looking at various leaves and turning my calligraphy-style brush to make the shape of each leaf.  I hope to make photo-etchings of these calligraphic leaf shapes as part of a suite of etchings.  These sheets of soft sumi ink leaves sit on top of my flat files and inspire me, even if I don’t have time to make etchings yet.

Meanwhile, I started looking for watercolors that were not yet fully-developed. I found some that I thought would benefit from additional oak leaf imagery.  I started with a watercolor featuring an ancient ruin, Selinus, Temple C, a powerful ruin I have used a number of times,  The surviving temple is so provocative, a long surviving collonade and a tumble of pillars strewn in the foreground.

The city of Selinus, an ancient Greek colony in Sicily, is famous for its ruined Doric temples.  It is situated near Augusta on the east coast, 20 km north-northwest of Syracuse, Italy was the westernmost colony in Sicily,.  Selinus was founded in 651 or 628 BC by colonists from nearby Megara Hyblaea and from Megara in Greece. It achieved great prosperity in the 5th century BC, when its great temples were built. The city was destroyed by Carthaginians in 409 BC and again in 250 B.C. The site was then essentially deserted. The acropolis was refortified in the Byzantine period. Excavations have uncovered Selinus’ extensive ruins and suggests that the city’s monuments were toppled by earthquakes rmore than by warfare. On the acropolis were four large Doric temples, two of the sixth century, two of the fifth, and a small shrine. None of these has been securely attributed to specific deities, but are identified by letters (Temples A, C, D, and O; Shrine B).

My original watercolor featuring Temple C had a ghost image in faint watercolor of the Sphinx of Giza in blue and another ghost image, Marilyn Monroe’s famous lips, in quinachridone magenta. I love combining ancient and contemporary imagery in one painting, giving us an opportunity to connect past and present. Marilyn’s lips loomed large over the picture space.  Over these I painted Temple C, the collonade a man-made horizontal, the horizontal lips from a beautiful contemporary icon. Temple C is in quinocridone burnt sienna and mauve so the whole painting pulsated with color and images. 

Suddenly, Vergina’s oak leaves seemed suitable, as Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world at the time.  A display of delicate falling leaves seemed right.  I was also experimenting with Daniel Smith’s luminous watercolors and added bright dots of pale blue.  This is, after all, a vision, not an illustration.

My Ostraka: Odyssey I: ii

A Meditation on Autumn Leaves

Monday, November 2, finally a brilliantly sunny day.
My dear neighbor Grace, a retired teacher just called me. She asked if she could 'play in the leaves' and rake my front yard. Mercy, what a welcomed gift. Teaching full time and carving out time to do my own painting does not leave much time for 'playing in the leaves,' so naturally I told Grace first that she was crazy and second, wonderful.

Autumn has always been my favorite season, the lush colors, sounds of leaves rustling, the crunch of dried twigs when walking in the woods-or even my back yard where I pick up twigs and pine cones for the fireplace, listening to the birds and rustling branches. I meditate while raking leaves, today being the first time ever I have a wonderful volunteer. The sun is so clear in autumn after the heady days of summer. As artists, we take in these subtleties.

In October and November 2006 I was a visiting professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, by invitation of artist/professor Xenis Sachinis who I met in Berlin at the Impact 4 conference. What a great guy Xenis is! He took me to Dion and Vergina, ancient Greek sites and I made watercolors and sketches. At Vergina, home to Philip II, father of Alexander the Great; I picked up six oak leaves. You can't pick up any stones, shards or bits of marble, but you can put these tiny oak leaves in your pocket. These tiny leaves have inspired a number of watercolors and hopefully in the future, some etchings. I wish I packed a whole bunch of leaves in my pockets, as I would like to use 'frottage' to make leaf impressions on some drawings.

These six leaves are so dear to me I have Xeroxed them and made template while the leaves themselves sit in a labeled plastic tub. Friend and fellow artist Brandy Larson, from grad school days in Madison, Wi, brought me back some leaves from Turkey when I told her about my plans. These leaves are not exactly the same, but they will add to the repertoire of fall leaves I will use.

I have one Alexander the Great with oak leaves finished, this one posted, with American oak leaves. The next two watercolors in progress feature the precious Vergina oak leaves. I now have at least five different kinds of oak leaves just from my yard, on campus and two exotic locales.

Who wouldn't use oak leaves in their art, what with their ancient associations?

I am teaching a week-end watercolor workshop in Chicago

Newberry Library Seminars Program: Arts, Music, and Performance

http://www.newberry.org/programs/currentschedule.html

#Weekend Watercolor Intensive
Saturdays, 1 - 4 pm
July 11 - July 25
3 sessions, $120
Register Online

If you ever wanted to paint watercolors but felt they were difficult, now is your chance to find out otherwise. Watercolors can be fresh and spontaneous or complex and carefully developed. Learn watercolors anew or, if an experienced painter, brush up on drawing, composition, and color mixing while making meaningful personal still lifes. The exciting part is making meaningful paintings from your heirlooms, mementos from travel, or flowers from the garden. Supplies are inexpensive. You already have some materials at home.

Cynthia Kukla is a Professor of Art at Illinois State University and one of only two hundred members of the USA Watercolor Honor Society.


* indicates the class is offered on a weekday morning or afternoon
# indicates CPDU credit available for Illinois teachers seeking recertification

Some new paintings in 2009

I can't believe it is finally spring, we had snow in April here. Snow always makes me happy so I was among the few who liked it. Us skiers, we love to look at snow, think about snow and ski on snow ANYTIME.

So now, finally spring and good work done.