Thursday, September 3, 2009

returning to a source of inspiration...



















































































a day in the studio, going over images from journals (top 2) and photos of the ocean pool  (next 3) The first image is not directly inspired by this pool, but its fluidity and layering comes very much from that work and time. The link between image 2 & 3 is  for me quite strong. Although 2 is very abstracted and stylised perhaps...it was part of a long series of work where i was obsessed with the ways that pool water and light plays with ones vision. My journals are filled with many, many interpretations of this illusive phenomena. These 3 photos viewed up large are so lush and so immensely appealing to me ...they, and images like them, have spawned a lot of ideas and paintings.

8 comments:

Marie-Estelle said...

I love these pictures !

Sophie Munns said...

HI Marie-Es,
I am delighted by comments from one with such a wonderful eye for the exquisite and the unexpected!
Lovely blog you have!
Sophie

Chrissy Foreman C said...

Hi Soph! You know one of the things that I find most inspirational and intriguing is travelling 'behind the scenes' into an artist's work. I love how you've posted your artwork along with the inspiration/reasoning behind it. I think it really helps the viewer feel as though they can connect with the artist and understand a piece of their plight. Thanks for your piece of shared inspiration!
C xx

Sophie Munns said...

Hi Chrissy,
isn't it a gorgeous Brisbane day?
Thanks for your thoughts and I'm pleased it connected for you!
I did quickly have a look at your brand new web-site which is very exciting for you and will no doubt lead to lots of enquiries. The images load extremely well & its very accessible! I noted a painting I must get back to you about. I didn't get to comment...not being a blog...but was going to get to you with a message soon.
S xo

Janis said...

Sophie - Yes! What a beautiful series this could be...I LOVE YOUR WORK!!!

I have a fasination with the light and colors that play on the surface of water as well, and I've always wanted to capture it on paper, abstractly.

em said...

beautiful... it's interesting to see how the inspiration is translated onto the canvas. wonderful work!

Sophie Munns said...

Lovely to hear your comments Janis. Thank you for taking time to send a message...and such a lovely one at that!
When I was first doing this work some time back I spent a summer swimming underwater with my cheap little pair of eye goggles trying to breathe in the atmosphere of colour and light, then racing home to my studio to put down anything I could to replicate in any way what I had seen.An extremely challenging exercise... it was easy to feel that all effort was falling short of the mark...but what did come was a language of forms dealing with fluidity and much meditation on ideas around this. What was confirming was finding that effort led somewhere quite potent even if not in precisely the way I first though it might.
The second image down was a leap of imagining that has been further explored in many ways in further work...and I love that the work in sketchbooks containing the evolution of this form are coming literally from sensual immersion in a body of water over time, at different times of day, with shifts in weather and temperature and quality of water and such all impacting on the experience and visualisations.

Returning to this place recently and to this imagery has been wonderful because I virtually lost a couple of solid years of my Art Practice due to the disruptions of medical complications with selling a home and relocation in the midst of that...so this work was quite abandoned before I had fully dealt with it enough to feel a certain resolution.

Currently I live in a very different environment, without access to such fabulous Ocean pools...so it is interesting to note the pull of this theme for me.
You've been a catalyst for all these thoughts janis!
Thank you,
Sophie

Sophie Munns said...

Hi Em,
Your lovely comment was published before my response to janis...so now a message to you, the clever gardener with new Obelisk!

With your scientific eye...tell me...what do you think of that amazing growth on the side of the children's ocean pool? If you click on the image it enlarges and you can observe much more clearly the algae and the extraordinary sight of it floating, almost dancing, in the water!

It is quite garden-like this mossy pool's edge. I guess its winter and they clean out the pool less frequently allowing time for the garden to prosper! In high seas water washes into the pool as well...so maybe this has not been disrupted at all in a little while!
Fall must be starting for you now...
Thanks for visiting Em,
Sophie