A Recovery Blog

This blog is about my continuing recovery from severe mental illness and addiction. I celebrate this recovery by continuing to write, by sharing my music and artwork and by exploring Buddhist and 12 Step ideas and concepts. I claim that the yin/yang symbol is representative of all of us because I have found that even in the midst of acute psychosis there is still sense, method and even a kind of balance. We are more resilient than we think. We can cross beyond the edge of the sane world and return to tell the tale. A deeper kind of balance takes hold when we get honest, when we reach out for help, when we tell our stories.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Cezanne Study



This is a watercolor painting I've recently done of an oil painting by Cezanne, a self-portrait. These last two weeks I've returned to painting and since I have no teacher to guide me, I decided to try and loosely follow a Master. Cezanne has been a favorite of mine since I was in college the first time. I'm drawn to his use of color, to his solid brush strokes and to his unpretentious subject matter. So far I've done four watercolor paintings, including this one, based on his paintings which I will upload to Artid in the next couple of days, along with others not based on Cezanne. I only have one book of his work and all the reproductions are of oil paintings, but I know he also mastered the art of watercolor and I look forward to seeing some of those works. Following Cezanne has been liberating for me. I hope I can apply what I learn from him to my other paintings.

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