In some peoples’ lives, a contemplative practice becomes the still axis around which all else revolves. They eagerly await the time set aside for contemplation.
Or, something deep and still comes upon them unbidden when in nature (or in a crowded room). This is contemplation too, for the intention is there to walk in the dark land. And meditation itself can offer images and visions of ways forward, of natural places that could and do themselves become future loci of further deepening.
The contemplative truly becomes the “pilgrim of eternity” when he or she gives high priority to this deepening. There’s no conflict here with worldly priorities, even with the priorities of love and intimate relationships, because paradoxically to closely hug the practice in one’s heart means all others in that life are also closely hugged.
Yet contemplation requires will, resilience, commitment. An experience of the presence of eternity is not guaranteed, and many mystical writers have spoken of the tracts of desolation that can be encountered. It’s then that the words of these mystical writers are valuable, as way marks and humbling references. We may never attain the states of which they speak, and that’s of no matter. By their words we are encouraged to keep walking.
Here’s George William Russell (known as AE) on the subject, speaking of when he was still a boy:
I began to be astonished with myself, for, walking along country roads, intense and passionate imaginations of another world, of an interior nature began to overpower me. They were like strangers who suddenly enter a house, who brush aside the doorkeeper, and who will not be denied. Soon I knew they were the rightful owners and heirs of the house of the body, and the doorkeeper was only one who was for a time in charge, who had neglected his duty, and who had pretended ownership. The boy who existed before was an alien. He hid himself when the pilgrim of eternity took up his abode in the dwelling. (AE, The Candle of Eternity)
Tagged as:
George William Russell (AE),
Landscape,
Place
Ron Dowd
Near Tilba Tilba
acrylic on board, 2009, 35cm x 30cm
Tagged as:
Art,
Landscape
There’s a nice review by John McDonald in the SMH of Murray Bail’s revised biography of Ian Fairweather. McDonald speaks of Fairweather’s bizarre attempt to travel by self-made raft from Darwin to Bali, and how it changed Fairweather:
The raft voyage exorcised Fairweather’s wanderlust. After he made his way back to Australia in 1953, following a forced, unhappy return to England, he settled on Bribie Island and built his first hut. He set to work and produced Monastery in 1961; Monsoon, Shalimar and Epiphany in 1961-62; Turtle and Temple Gong in 1965. These are masterpieces but many people still have affection for the dry, early paintings on Chinese and Balinese themes.
Ah, those early paintings – here’s one I stop by and see from time to time at the AGNSW.
Ian Fairweather
Chinese Mountain, 1933
Oil and gouache on cardboard, 49 x 59 cm
Tagged as:
Art,
Ian Fairweather,
Landscape
Here’s an artist whose work I love – Billy Benn Perrurle Artetyerre. The Aboriginal collection at the AGNSW is currently closed for renovations so, not being able to see his energetic works there, I’ll post some here.
Billy Benn Perrurle Artetyerre
Bindi, Acrylic on board, 10 x 16 cm
Billy Benn Perrurle Artetyerre
Acrylic on linen
Billy Benn Perrurle Artetyerre
Harts Range, pre 1997, Utopia, acrylic on fibreboard panel
(Collection of the National Gallery of Australia)
It can be hard to track down information about Aboriginal artists, but this Indigenart exhibition page has some interesting background on the man. I like this quotation from Catherine Peattie, Arts Co-odinator at Mwerre Anthurre Artists:
Residing in Alice Springs the Mwerre Anthurre Artists only occasionally get to visit their country. As a result, they paint their county from memory. Remembering and painting country becomes a bittersweet experience. It is a celebration of connection to place with each new painting reinvigorating their culture, contrasted against a sadness at their separation from such a significant space. Carrying the country within, Billy Benn says when he sees that country in his mind’s eye his spirit is there, and his spirit lifts. The paintings are imbued with such a sense of place that laws of time and space become circular as we the viewer are transported to this country.
These are works that connect with my own interest in remembered landscapes, that inevitably become, in part at least, landscapes of the imagination. Such landscapes can also be strong reminders from what is behind landscape, behind our own psychic landscapes – that other landscape of the noumenal, our essence, which I continue to write about and attempt to articulate in my own art making.
Tagged as:
Art,
Billy Benn Perrurle,
First Australians,
Landscape
