Blog

Recently I have been in the process of moving my art studio from one room in my house to a larger space downstairs. In doing so, I have had to sort through all kinds of paperwork, keepsakes and many, many books. Nothing sends you down Memory Lane like browsing through all the old books and mementos you have collected through the years. It reminded me how quickly time speeds by, all while we are busy trying to live our best lives. Before you know it, everything has changed and we are facing a new future.

 

The concept of time has been at the forefront of my mind for a while now. After the death of my husband in February I have had to make many changes in my life. Events like that force one to really think about how precious time really is.

 

It drew my attention to a painting I did many years ago - a watercolor that I named Passing Time. The painting depicts the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, which is housed in a building that was originally a railway station. The big clock is actually a window that looks out onto the River Seine below. The painting hangs on my office wall, so I see it every day. But lately I've been really noticing how poignant and meaningful the image is. Total strangers, standing in an art museum in Paris, staring out a window; others going about their business. The man in the foreground seems to be checking his phone, the lady at his right is filming the museum, all while a giant clock in the background is looming over the scene, tick-tick-ticking the moments away.

 

I took the reference photos for this painting while visiting the Musee d'Orsay many years ago. The art in the museum was amazing, but I was even more drawn to the light effects in the space. The daylight coming in from the giant clock window was so bright that the figures in front of the window were silhouetted against the light. It made for a striking image.

 

In painting the piece, the obstacle I faced was that there was essentially no color in the scene, due to the extreme lights and darks. My solution was to employ a watercolor pour technique, which means that the paint was thinned down to liquid consistency and poured onto the paper in layers, with the lighter areas being masked with masking fluid to retain their color and value in between pours. The result was that the image stayed intact, while I could inject some much needed color into the piece. And the giant clock window, ticking away in the center of the scene remained the lightest and brightest element in the painting.

 

These days when I look at that painting, I'm reminding myself to slow down just a little, really notice the world around me, and pay more attention to the "here and now". I'm hoping that being more mindful and fully present can slow down that tick-tick-ticking clock in the background just a little bit. It can't hurt to try! 

 

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back."

- Harvey Mackay