Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Expeditions
Picturing Our World
Learning Our World
Exploring Our World
Members Story Index
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Join OWJ
My OWJ
Recommend OWJ
About Us
Contact Us
Where People and the Planet Connect
Produced by FusionSpark Media

Home / Picturing Our World / Member Stories (31) / Painter (2) / Europe (1) / Environments: Mountains (1)

 

The Country of Georgia

An artist's new perspective

 Email the author

 

Send to a friend

Image Gallery

DOMESTIC: © 2002 Mike Woodcock, 165 x 165 cm, acrylic on panel

More about the author
Home Page
Mike Woodcock

More Relevant Links
Georgia Revealed, by One World Journeys


 

PublisherÕs Note: WeÕd like to thank Mike for being one of the first contributors to the Journeys Corps of Storytellers.

__________________________________

After living overseas for the past 10 years, the tropics had become imbedded into my psyche. The intensity of light, for example, the contrasting shadows of midday, all these things were the things that I thought I could not do without. Marie my wife, who works as a development worker, and I were discussing new places where we could move, we were due for a change.

East Timor, Ghana and Madagascar were all on the top of my list; places like Bosnia, Kosovo and The Caucasus never even entered my mind. But then the unthinkable happened, a job was offered in Tbilisi, Georgia that was too good to pass up. "Hey, what about my light intensity?" I was reluctant at first, with no beaches, and warm sunshine to spoil me, what could Georgia offer? In my heart I knew as an artist I had to be flexible, so I accepted the change with an open mind.

We arrived in Tbilisi mid-January and it was similar to Canada - cold, windy and wet. I immediately started looking around Tbilisi for things to inspire new paintings, and I found it at every corner. Old brick buildings with rusty tin roofs, wooden windows with peeling paint, huge untrimmed trees lining every street, old churches and monasteries dotting the hillside. I said to myself, "this place has potential."

In my first week I met a well-known local artist by the name of Gogi Chagelishvili whose style is much more avant-guarde and mature than mine. The next day we were off to the wine region of Khahetia. The natural beauty, the grassy hills, pine groves and pure white sky, forested valleys and old monasteries struck me.

At one point I just started to wander in a vast field of wintery yellow grass. The wind was gusting, the sky was threatening rain, and the serenity was breathtaking. I sat in the center of this sea of ochre and started to feel the luminescence of the colors. Without the presence sunlight the colors jumped out at me; the intense sunlight of the tropics would have drowned out these colors.

It was like the colors were singing all on their own without the aid of the tropical sun. I was starting to realize, it's not so much about contrasts and well-placed shadows, but the feeling and the colors of the place.

After driving for several hours we came across the village of Sighnaghi, perched high on the edge of the ridge overlooking the Telavi region. This little untouched village had it all. Narrow streets lined with old buildings in various states of decay. Hills and cliffs with buildings perched at all angles.

The angle of all these rooftops here and in Tbilisi was starting to inspire me. Almost abstract in form, the various squares and triangles of rusty red tin and orange ochre tiles was something new that I hadn't noticed before.

Also the way the locals recycled old household goods I found interesting. A garden fence may consist of old bed frames, rusty bedsprings or scraps of tin and wood. Adding to this the textures of the old brick and stone homes and churches was motivating me enough to want to go home and paint.

Back in Tbilisi, with Gogi's guidance I secured an exhibition date for early May at Rustaveli's TMS Gallery. I thought to myself "whoa" I have only been here a two weeks and now I've got to fill a large gallery in three months time. For some strange reason I also thought about changing my medium. My past several exhibitions had been almost exclusively watercolors, and I was due for the change. What a great opportunity, new country, new visuals, new paint and new technique.

My wife thought I was crazy, "take it slow, it takes time to adjust." With all my new inspiration I just flipped my traditional way of working and thinking on its back, and it was the natural beauty of Georgia that helped me gain a new perspective.

One day, go out to a special place. It may be in a park, on the roof of your apartment or in your own backyard or balcony, and just look at some single object for an extended period of time. Study its color variances in the sunlight and in the shade, look at reflections in glass and how the color is altered from the reflected object. Look at an old stick or stone and feel the texture and feel the colors, wet the stone and see the changes. Gain a new perspective.

 

Community Question

How do you get inspired to inspect your own surroundings and appreciate the natural beauty in your every day life?

View Responses    Share Your Response


 
logo

Home  |  My OWJ  |  Recommend OWJ  |  About Us  |  Contact Us  |  Editorial Guidelines  |  Submission Policies  |  Privacy Statement

© Copyright 2000-2002 FusionSpark Media, Inc. and One World Journeys. All rights reserved.
None of the images or content on this web site may be copied or distributed without prior written permission.