Living Flame of Love

O living flame of love
That tenderly wounds my soul
In its deepest center! Since
Now you are not oppressive,
Now Consummate! if it be your will:
Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
That tastes of eternal life
And pays every debt!
In killing you changed death to life.

O lamps of fire!
In whose splendors
The deep caverns of feeling,
Once obscure and blind,
Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
Both warmth and light to their beloved.

How gently and lovingly
You wake in my heart,
Where in secret you dwell alone;
And in your sweet breathing,
Filled with good and glory,
How tenderly you swell my heart with love.

-St. John of the Cross

My Sketchbook Weighs A Ton

Sensitivity of Giorgione

I've recently had a taste for Italian painters. I particularly like the vivid color of Giorgione and the warmth of light that he used to express a great sensitivity to the subjects. His balance of light and form is considerably ahead of his time. Delicate and passionate his pictures find a soft place in me. Deeply sensitive and reverent expression marks every character in these scenes. No doubt Giorgione's place in the canons of human history is justified, if not also underappreciated by many.

John Constable

My heart leaps up when I behold
  A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So it is now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!
The child is the father of the man;
And I could wish my days to  be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
                                      "The Rainbow" (1802)
                                       William Wordsworth

Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool (Lincoln Park-Chicago, IL)

I found a door to a garden on Fullerton Ave. and discovered an intimate beauty. 
The Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool is an interesting space.  In the entirity of the space is the lily pond and so the pathway is along the perimeter forcing your experience to be along the boundaries of the space, creating a dramatic scenic device, you are asked focus on the pond and what is across the pond.  There are several oppurtunities to "discover" the picturesque designs of the landscape.  I found a spot at the south end of the pond that employs several framing compositions, giving view to a marvelous beauty of space in the layering of foreground, middleground, and distant-ground-- plus the sky as a background, while the pond reflects it all as an additional plane in the area.

I am not, by practice, a landscape painter, so I was intrigued by the complexity of the layers to simulate the sense of the Lilly Pools parts and as a whole.  I was also interested in finding and representing an intimate experience with Nature and the design of Nature.  I wanted each leaf to have its presence known as they waved to be seen; the legacy of the stones to have its place; the winds and breezes and even the stillness whispering among the lily pads across the surface of the water.  The light and shadows played hide and seek with Colour and revealing a majestic "Hurrrah!!!" at 4:30 every afternoon.  And I'd like to say that there were several pleasant people that stopped to say hello and that it was an overall charming experience that I am grateful to have had.

Thomas Gainsborough

Herbert Draper