Form of My Prayer - big sur inspired palette knife oil painting

    Filter

      Image Description

      An original oil painting inspired by Big Sur, California, painted in the style of French Impressionism by Oregon fine artist Talya Johnson.

      Behind the Canvas

      The title for this palette knife oil painting is inspired by the following excerpt from John Berger’s essay “The White Bird” in his book Sense of Sight. (Emphasis is my own.)

      ”The notion that art is the mirror of nature is one that only appeals in periods of skepticism. Art does not imitate nature, it imitates a creation, sometimes to propose an alternative world, sometimes simply to amplify, to confirm, to make social the brief hope offered by nature. Art is an organized response to what nature allows us to glimpse occasionally. Art sets out to transform the potential recognition into an unceasing one. It proclaims man in the hope of receiving a surer reply … the transcendental face of art is always a form of prayer.”

      This seascape of the California Central Coast was inspired by my travels to Big Sur with my dearest of friends. It came to me in a burst of frustration with all the constraints inherent to a finite human being trying to convey something of the eternal. I hardly blinked and the painting appeared before, a gift from some external force beyond my comprehension. ~Tali