A Painting and a Poem for Today

Too Vast to be Contained (In process) , Oil on Canvas, 30 x 40 in Sharon Kingston 2011

We may yearn to come to rest in some small piece of pure humanity a strip of orchard between river and rock But our heart is too vast to be contained there. We can no longer seek it in a place.

from the Second Duino Elegy Rainer Maria Rilke

I’ve given myself permission this month to paint real places.  To paint from a photograph.  To take a rest from the imagined spaces and find a strip of orchard to rest.  No challenges except to just paint and be content with what is happening on the canvas.  This is a time of transition for me and I think that I need to enter into a safe place and take some of the anxiety out of the process.  And to just enjoy my new space and the wonderful light and see where it all leads me. Not to be contained for long, though.  I’m working some things out in my imagination.

This is a view from above looking out.  Lots of interesting things going on under the surface.  Still evolving, but I love so much the sentiment of the poem with the painting that I wanted to post it today.

#paintingandpoetry #readingrilke