Inspired by the impressionists

There's something artistically inspiring about where we live. It's got an elusive mystical quality, not a dramatic lightning bolt but more a subtely, seductive bewitchedness--an invitation into a world beyond. It is sinister and almost depressive (but not quite) and meditative in the stillness of it. I have a hard time even describing it. I've found places I've lived to be inspiring like the Alps which are just breathtaking (you have to actually stand back before you take pictures sometimes to be sure it's real) and of course colorful Mexico which literally dances in front of your camera or canvas, but here it's somehow even more inspiring and yet it's almost hidden. I'm not even sure how it works. It doesn't shout out at you but it's there and it's powerful.



It's interesting to compare my impressions with others and I have a lot of opportunity. After all we are a five minute drive away from the berceau of impressionism, Auvers-sur-Oise. Auvers is where all of the Paris artists escaped to the country so that they could paint. Van Gogh painted his last mad paintings here and his celebrated Dr. Gachet portrait.* In fact it was the open invitation of Dr. Paul Gachet, the Auvers doctor with an interest in art, that brought artists to the Val D'Oise region.



During the 19th century a lot of painters lived and worked in Auvers-sur-Oise, including Paul Cézanne, Charles-François Daubigny, Pissarro, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Apparently If you are walking along the river Oise, you see the paintings of Pisarro brought to life.

"Inspired by the beautiful countryside, the rolling hills, the natural light and the way the light and fog vapors played on the Oise river, painters began to deviate from the dark posed paintings that were fashionable in Paris salons at the time and painted landscapes. But unlike the Barbizon artists who tended towards romantic realism, they focused on more ordinary things, like green fields, apple trees, peasants and thatched cottages. The exceptional light here created color contrasts and shadings that were originally scoffed at and reviled by the art community."

We don't live in Auvers but being closeby has it's advantages. It's a creative goldmine in our little village. I didn't understand at first when we came here how with just over 3,000 residents we'd have a theatre, a cultural society, painting and potters lessons and a small music school for children. But I realized that the artists spirit is very much alive and the painter is still everywhere. It seems common to meet a group of hikers with sketchbooks and even Little S and I have taken our books out and been hardly noticed as we sat by a rock and drew still lifes right in the center of town. It feels right somehow to retrace the footsteps of greatness and walk a little bit in their shadow.

* a copy is in the Musee D'Orsay but the original is lost in the artworld somewhere).