I have decided I will try and write in this blog weekdays only. I might do an occasional weekend post, but I don’t want it to be something I hold myself to.
That being said, I want to talk about landscape art. This form of expression, after fantasy art, has done so much for my writing experience. I have always been a big fan of the Hudson River School of Artists, Frederic Church being one of my favorites.
These guys didn’t just paint the scene before their eyes; hills, trees and such. They painted the atmosphere as well; mist, rainbows, sunlight, haze and humidity. Things I like to call the living breath of the world.
When I write a scene, I try to put these elements into my locations in the hope of making it more real to the reader. I don’t know if I always succeed, but I feel my writing is better because of it. Here is one small example from my book “The Dragon and the Faerie”:
“Let’s go into the grotto where it is cooler,” Pan said. They walked the garden paths into the grotto. Donella was awestruck by the natural beauty of it. The rock was a white limestone. The roof of the grotto had several holes in it to allow sunlight to stream through. Decorative columns lined both sides of the walls and the back. The size of the space was immense. There were several reflecting pools with green plant life on tiered rocks throughout. There were two small waterfalls on either side that came out of the rock and spilled into a trough that ran through the grotto and irrigated the gardens beyond, and then disappeared into a subterranean stream that eventually emptied into the river they crossed.
One particular pool caught Donella’s eye and she walked over to it. It was rectangular and a stream of water came out of the rock to empty into a statue of a dragon’s head. The mouth was open in a silent roar as the water poured into a stone bowl below to fill up and overflow its sides. In the bowl was a white flower floating in stark contrast to the dark water. Donella found it curious that the flower stayed directly in the center of the bowl, neither moving from rim to rim nor spilling over the side. She thought of asking Pan about this but decided against. She found the mystery of it very appealing and she didn’t want to spoil it.
Until next time my friends! Peace!
Outside of the house in the back was a big yard with lush green grass. The children's dad (Pop & Uncle Willie,and Kris) would constantly be working back there keeping it trim and neat. A stream wound its way past their yard before it disappeared into the woods (uncle vic's back yard). :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Magic of The Pony Man (with my own comments)
Very Cool! I forgot about that. Good example
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