Greetings Readers!
Here is the next volume of our series — The Wisdom of Art. This series invites us to pause from our busy lives to explore the wisdom of art and poetry.
Here is a painting, a poem, and a bit of prose…
1. Shipwreck (Painting)
Throughout his lifetime, Ivan Aivazovsky (1817—1900) contributed over 6,000 paintings to the art world. Aivazovsky was especially effective at developing the play of light in his paintings, sometimes applying layers of color to create a transparent quality, a technique for which they are highly admired. Although he produced many portraits and landscapes, over half of Aivazovsky’s paintings are realistic depictions of coastal scenes and seascapes.
Aivazovsky is best remembered for his beautifully dramatic renditions of the seascapes he painted the most. Many of his later works depict the painful heartbreak of soldiers in battle or lost at sea, with a soft celestial body taunting hope from behind the clouds. His artistic technique centers on his ability to render the realistic shimmer of the water against the light of the subject in the painting, be it the full moon, the sunrise, or battleships in flames.
“The movement of natural elements cannot be captured by the brush: to paint lightning, a gust of wind, or the splash of a wave from nature is inconceivable.”
— Ivan Aivazovsky
Contemplation Exercise:
Consider taking some uninterrupted time to contemplate the painting above:
Notice what arises…
What can we learn about life…
