Sunlight, Liminality and Neo-romanticism

S U N L I G H T.

Searching the skies is an addictive past time at the moment, day and night, always changing, always something to notice. 

The sun when it appears is worth grasping hold of, the colours, the feel of it on my skin and the lift in mood. I have felt this feed into my work. (Some studio stuff in stories today)

I recently listened to an episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage all about the Sun. Lucy Green Professor of Physics at UCL imparted this lovely piece about sunlight. 

"Even though light only takes 8 minutes to get from the surface of the sun, to make that journey from the core to the surface takes 200,000 years so sunlight is as old as modern humans are"

Made me think about deep time and our absurdly small but also significant place in all things.

These photos are from this week capturing the few times the sun has fought its way through the January fog. Image 5 sees the half moon top right. And an unexpectedly clear and beautiful night seeing Jupiter and Mars. Hanging out of my window at midnight, contorting myself to try and get them in the same photograph. Small things like us witnessing these phenomenal things.

L I M I N A L I T Y.

A word mentioned to me a few times lately and warranted further reading. So apologies if this is stuff you already know but I felt the need to keep some notes here and have placed them alongside these recent sketches in oil which in their misty way seemed appropriate. 

- Liminal comes from the late 19th century Latin Limen, Limin meaning threshold.

- A liminal space is a state or place characterised by being transitional or intermediate in some way. 

- 'It describes states, times, spaces, etc., that exist at a point of change—a metaphorical threshold'

- 'A liminal space where the real and imaginary meet'

- 'There is a liminality to the brief moment between being asleep and being awake.' (I am fascinated by this place, I dream a lot and move ideas around in my head at this time, sometimes paintings as well, it is a very precious place)

- The space between one point in time and space and the next.

- Also used in the theory of 'thin places', locations where the boundary between the material world and the spiritual or divine is perceived to be particularly thin.

- Subliminal means below the threshold of consciousness. 

I quite like the word, it seems relevant, when painting and considering atmosphere in skies, and in the appeal of certain places. 

January has been a time for reading, researching and writing. Don't imagine for a second I have managed to do loads of it but little bits everyday as with my practice has meant a steady flow.

This poem I found also seems connected.

SANCTUARY

White water rippling

There is a veil between us

Hangs like centuries of time,

And all that has been

Dissolves into the motes of gold.

That move in the pathway of the sun.

The gates swing slowly open.

by Helen Birch Bartlett.

N E O - R O M A N T I C I S M

Further to my recent posts and notes on liminality and sunlight I have also been reading up on Neo-romanticism and thought I'd share a few findings here.

I have been drawn into reading about the movement from a love of British painters, John Piper (image 10) and Paul Nash, who were inspired by William Blake and Samuel Palmer (also favourites)

Neo-romanticism is a sort of sprawling art movement, sometimes a little undefined. 

Around the British painters listed it seems art critics and galleries labelled an associated selection of artists who seemed to fit a wider set of ideas and echoed the Romanticist painters of the past.

The wider Neo-romantic movement crossed many disciplines; philosophy, literature, music, architecture, poetry and painting where works..

'give priority to nature and vivid representations of the creators internal feelings' 

and are 'projecting a sense of nostalgia and fantasy' 

are described as an 'intimate and intense way of viewing the world we live in'.

Looking at Paul Nash I find themes of poetry, childhood dreams, skies and a sensitivity to place.  In his essay 'Aerial Flowers' he writes,

'I lived the drama of the nocturnal skies, falling stars, moonrise, storms and summer lightning.  I shared with Samuel Palmer an appetite for monstrous moons, exuberance of stars'

You can probably get the idea of why I've decided to look deeper into this context which may align with my own thinking. 

I am accompanying these notes with some rough sketches and photos from a walk on Eype last week, not to label them as Neo-romantic, clearly not. But because as I walked, I talked with a friend about the vastness of  nature, we admired the energy and light in the elements around us. Talked about how on earth to attempt to capture the intensity of the experience, how my art practice in it's observation and gathering stages makes an attempt to document it for reference later on and about earnestly revering and respecting it, all of which may have turned out to be quite relevant...

Thanks for reading  x 

Neo-romanticism Refs:  Tate.org.ok, The Spirit of Place, Malcolm Yorke, Pallant.org.uk, Earth, Digging Deep in British Art 1781-2022, Christiana Payne.