One of my greatest inspirations has been Remedios Varo. I first discovered her in the late 1980's. Janet Kaplan wrote a fantastic biography on her. Included were her major works printed in full colour plates. Luminous golds and umbers . Here was an incredible artist who merged the magical, the superstitious and the everyday mundane machinations with scientific exploration of space and time that she illustrated with a delicate erudite painterly precision. A fascinating mind I would have enjoyed knowing her more intimately, but her friends and those who knew her guarded her personal details with secrecy. One can only gather a rich and complicated inner world. Perhaps painting is what kept her going , I hazard to guess that when she had exhausted all she had to say, or the questions had been answered, her journey was over. Apparently shortly before her death she confided to a friend that she no longer wanted to live and she died shortly there after , just shy of fifty five.
Over the years I have struggled with my own technique . Being untrained and to my chagrin ..not especially gifted. I plodded on to learn how to paint. Now fifty. Someone I came across recently remarked on my Paintings, that they reminded them of Remedios Varo. I thought I had left her behind. I took out that old copy of Kaplan's Biography.
My eyes fell upon the plate
El vagabundo.
My audacity said give it a try.
I have my own textural stroke.
I have lived a life different from hers.
Our paths converge in our thirst for knowledge and deeper understanding.The delight in the mesmeric.
The struggle towards self actualization and the passion for painting.
Tzigane (Hungarian Gypsy)
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