Colors of sunset

One day we discovered that our guitar was color of the sunset.


Colors so warm, so true.

This guitar so close to your heart, when you play.
This sunset so far, yet so present, as the day ends.

Total delight for the eye, and the ear.

Listen, look at the sunset, this evening on the deserted beach.
Look, listen to the guitar, this evening in your peaceful heart.

Silence and Sound are One
Color and Darkness are also One

The Great and the Tender

O Grande e o Carinhoso

Grandeur et Tendresse

Un magnifique coucher de soleil et Dame Nature nous dit " Bonsoir"

O sol já vai caindo
E o seu olhar
Parece acompanhar a cor do mar
( A.C Jobim, "fotographia")

Is there anything more inspiring than a sublime sunset?
Who knows?


L'homme d'Art

Eyes wide open...

The beginning of our story

A fish in the sky?

Living together

Destruction

There

You see, it's your eye who make the photography, not the brand of the camera and surely not the desire to capture.

Fleeting moments, do they touch your heart?
Do they trigger some emotion?
Is it really necessary to put a frame around them?

Anyway they are already gone...

Miniature watercolors part 2

A jungle for the small, a pillow for the big...

Marvels of Maldives

Unexpected encounter in Maldives lagoon

The dancing light

Nothing else

These miniature watercolors are part of the thousands (yes...) painted during a period of roughly 15 years of traveling the world alone, and getting completely intoxicated by its captivating landscapes and the magic light on them.

One had kept a very simple and compact apparatus to produce this kind of work.
Basically two or three brushes were used.
One, anonymous (without brand) from Japan, not to big, neither to small, to paint the larges washes of color of the skies, the seas and the lands.
The other one used for the details, was the Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brush size 000. The finest.

This Series 7 is quite famous, since the story tells that in 1866, Her Majesty Queen Victoria gave orders that Winsor & Newton should produce the very finest water colour brushes in her favourite size; the No.7. And since the reputation has never failed. If you happened to paint with it, you probably have been enchanted by its crisp point, the even and consistent flow of the color, and its durability. We tried many other fine brushes, none had these qualities to that extent.
It is really important to use the best tools and instruments when you get involved in a artistic production of high quality. It inspires you to push further, to push the envelope if one may say...

The colors were also from W&N, Artist Series. Our favorite colors were Indigo, Warm Sepia, Burnt Sienna, Payne's gray, Blue Cerulean, Sap green, French Ultramarine, Gambodge yellow, and others. Of course, we never used White. The white of the paper was left without color. Nothing else could match its brightness.
The paper was a 300g paper from France (Canson Montval, since the Arches was either too thick or too grainy for this miniature work). The sheet of paper was cut in small rectangles of 60x80 mm and also 40x65 mm. There was also another tiny size of approximately 20x30 mm, which was produced for a period of few years. These three sizes were called Micro, Mini and Maxi...
And the name of this miniature artwork was Miniatures d' Art or Md'A.
The funny thing was that the 3 letters MdA are forming the backbone of Medam, the name of its creator...

Water? Well at a point, since it was such a ritual to re-create reminiscences of the natural world, we used Evian water from he Alps, to be sure to have the purest water with no chlorine or chemical substances able to alter the quality of the paint.

The spirit of the Md'A could be seen like " producing the maximum effect while using the minimum material " and also " to paint One portrait, the portrait of our wonderful planet in all its nuances..." and also " to be able to carry one's gallery in the pocket, so one could at any time, any place, almost any circumstances, unfold and display this Artwork for a little time and then fold it again and forget about it.

In fact it was created not so much from a painter's point of view, but rather from a musician's mind. Indeed, just like a music that starts, plays, ends without leaving a trace, except a reminiscence in the mind and a feeling in the heart, these paintings (and later drawings) were to CREATE a space when necessary, but not FILL the empty space with their presence.
No encumbrance, no heavy burden, just the pure essence of the landscape and color. As a result, many thousands of people of any age, culture, social condition, or education have seen and responded to this work. Almost always with the same and same first reaction of surprise, amazement or joy ( not easy to tell) keeping the portfolio in their hands almost like if it was a new born child and saying " I have never seen anything like that, it's beautiful". And then after a while, asking " How much time does it take to paint one like this?"

Well, time has never been a valid factor in the generation of this work. Just replace the word "time' by "love". Then it becomes " How much love does it take to paint one like this?"
And that is a very tough question to answer...

L'homme d'Art

Monochrome Photography

Space Silence Sacredness

The line and the light

So vulnerable

The opening

Moonlight

Looking high

Recently moved to another location and one would be astonished to see how beautiful and energizing our planet can be. In fact, if you happened to be somewhat artist ( musician, painter or poet for example) or just a simple human being interested in the Art of Life itself ( Art of Living), you might find in Nature an immense, probably inexhaustible, source of inspiration. This is not a new discovery, you might say, many people have written about it, yet it is completely new when you actually experience it. The words have been said, written, but the freshness of being inspired in the present IS new. Fortunately.

So what is inspiration? There could be as many answers as there are artists on this planet. And every work of art could be also an answer, but the expression, the execution of a work of art is NOT the intense feeling of "élan" who springs when one is truly inspired.
The flow and drive which leads any artistic soul to produce something original, unique. And inspiring.
Many of us are or have been genuinely inspired by what other artists have done. Great music, paintings, sculptures, poetry, and the list goes... You can entitled yourself an artist ( or let others do it for you) or be simply a human being concerned with the Art of Life itself ( Art of Living), yet some moments of inspiration may transform your life and your art.
For me, one of the most inspiring "thing" felt in Nature is the Breeze.
The breeze is now around me as I am sitting, writing these lines, facing the sea, by a beautiful morning. There are the soft sounds than the breeze make with the trees and other plants, you can see the leaves and palms dancing and swaying in the breeze.
Of course there is the gentle caress on your skin and your face. As you breathe, the fragrance of flowers and the vast sea, fills your lungs, you could even taste it. And the breeze flows, modulate, unexpectedly, keeping your mind and senses alert, awake, alive. And you know, the breeze, well, you can't capture it, try and you will see... It seems like if the breeze is the life, the spirit which animate the landscape.
So it may be why, for me, the breeze epitomizes the real sense of freedom.

Music is also a flow. If music moves us, it's perhaps because we have to move with the flow of the music. Not just dancing and moving the body ( one can sit quietly too) but listening and letting the mind, as light as a feather or a small leaf, wanders with the sound.
Music and breeze have a lot in common. I even wonder if music was not created by humans to replicate the movement and feeling of the breeze, indoors.
Just as Light is what inspires me as a painter, the Breeze animate all creatures and induce movement in my musical work.

Nature, breeze, music, inspiration...
I see basically two sources of movement in our life. The technology generated and the breeze (fluid) generated.
Simply put, all engines, clocks, motors, cyclic mechanisms, produce a certain type of movement which stimulates the brain to produce groovy, synthetic, repetitive and loud music highly compressed at the mix, with very little dynamic change. I guess all the pop, disco, house and nu-genres are the products of this evolution. The metronome and the click track being the highest reference on which everything grows.
Because most of us musicians, live and work in cities this movement, which ignore day from night, become our oxygen, our fuel in one sense.

It is only if you have felt a bit suffocated and dizzy about it that you might one day venture in some different kind of landscape.
While the click track (metronome) is the "incarnation" of predictability, the breeze and other natural fluidic movements offers only non-predictability. If the click of a metronome is a spike repeating itself at regular intervals, solid like rock,unconcerned with any minor turbulences, the flow of the breeze is all curves and modulations, stretching like rubber in a vast space. Every item in the universe seems to have its word to say to participate to this movement much alive.
So what is a music generated by this kind of movement? What kind of inspiration flowers with the breeze?
Why Nature can be inspiring?
How do I find my way between the metronome and the breeze?
These are questions that you might ask at some point of your musical life. Even if you rephrase them differently, the meaning remains.
I have no answers here. Let me just share some observations and feelings.
Thoughts like:
Can I produce as many paintings/drawings as there are leaves on this big tree?
Can I recreate the lively movement and body of that river with music?
Can I translate the stories of the breeze with my guitar?
This blue immensity, just in front of my eyes, this vast sea and all the light of the sun scintillating on its surface, is there a way to transmute it into a great symphony?
The palette of colors has so many nuances at that moment of the day ( or the night); are there enough chords in my harmonic palette to produce a similar atmosphere?
How does one render those natural manifestations into musical, artistic work available to other people, in a multimedia production format and keep some of the inspiration that started it all?
Are there any answers to these questions?

Questions, I feel, are good. Are a good generator. Questions generate movement. Questions awake my mind. Explanations and answers tend to make it go to sleep or become lazy. Questions are the beginning of a journey, aren't they?

I was wondering: how is India, how is Brazil? (or any other place) So traveling and living there became the only way to find out. Did I found any answer, any static explanation? Probably not, but I am glad that those questions were asked.

It is inspiring to travel. You see so many things, hear so many voices, smell lots of unfamiliar odors and much more. You become aware of your rooted old habits and learn different ways to perceive life.

As a musician it is easy to travel. Like the bird, you fly to bring your song to whom is ready to listen. And if you are a serious musician, you listen maybe even more than you sing or play. And you get inspired.... sometimes...
It is also easy to remain in the same circles, comfortable groups and clubs and think that the success has come and, well...

But with Nature, you can't play the games of success ( or failure if wished). Nature doesn't play that game with you, for you. Nature doesn't clap, doesn't say "wow"! The sounds there are not meant to entertain anyone.
From the soft breeze to the apocalyptic thunder, nothing happen for you, for me, but if we enjoy it, it's fine too.
Natural creatures are not my fan club. There may be curious but quickly return to their own business. Bees, ants, squirrels, birds and the fly that seems to like your skin soooo much, don't get thrilled by your performance. People may do. Yet the silence of the rocks, the plants and the still waters can help you musically more than anyone else. More than any idol or teacher. If you surrender to it, it will let your heart and mind mature, probably be wiser day after day.

In India this concept of surrender is very common. Well, if it is a concept, it has certainly very little value. It has to be effective, in action. To let go all the resistances that you have built each day for so many years, strongly encouraged by your elders, is not an easy task to do. They have become a solid wall, thick and dry and just as they create a strong obstacle to disturbances, they do repel also the perfume of the jasmine or the rose. They obscure the blooming of the soft lotus in the pond, and they don't let the distant song of the blackbird teach you some melodies. In India, traditionally, the disciple would have to surrender his little ego to the master from which he would love to learn ( guru). Then, he would be ready for the flow of the music to penetrate into his ears and blood, like the breeze may enter, while you are not waiting for, through the window of your room. That was a tradition. Maybe still is.
Nature, perhaps, is more exigent. Or less demanding, in a way. It doesn't ask you to surrender. It doesn't even acknowledge you. Either you've got this deep insight that the wall of the ego will block all beauty and tenderness, either you will go on with your dream of security, and I am afraid, miss all inspiration pouring freely, without walls nor frame.

So here I am, or I am not, listening to the Breeze from the Sea, and as a loyal secretary, translating, typing the page of my next blog, for my friends musicians and listeners around the world.

L'Homme d'Art

Photos from the daily walk