Why do fishermen fish? Why do I paint early on Sunday mornings. With the pressures of business, being a father and a husband to me it is more important than ever to experience the spiritual in our lives. Our Quaker ancestors clearly experienced collective spirituality in meeting, as shown in the picture in the Street meeting house. It’s why they were called Quakers.
Some still find it in meeting, others find it in music, in a thunderstorm or up a mountain. For me the times sitting out on the Somerset levels early in the morning is where I find that powerful spiritual depth. I have even measured the change in consciousness that occurs. I have often sat by ditches on the Somerset Levels on a cold wet February Sunday morning alongside fishermen. They watch their float and even if they do catch anything put it back. So if it is not for their dinner, I have always felt they must be out there for the same spiritual enrichment.
Churchill in his wonderful little book, Painting as a Pastime, describes how painting not only helped him to cope with the tremendous pressures of life, but also to absorb the colours and details of wherever he was and to appreciate the skill of the old masters. For me drawing and painting on trains, at airports, being arrested by the Congo and recently by the Imperial Palace in Ethiopia for alleged spying have opened many doors and hugely added to the richness of my life.
Van Gogh's cypress trees painted shortly before he shot himself convey to me the extraordinary power and depth of his feeling. I like to say that I don’t paint for the result, and am certainly not a van Gogh. But if these efforts help some of you to share the joy that painting has brought in to my life then that is a bonus!
Lance Clark
Some still find it in meeting, others find it in music, in a thunderstorm or up a mountain. For me the times sitting out on the Somerset levels early in the morning is where I find that powerful spiritual depth. I have even measured the change in consciousness that occurs. I have often sat by ditches on the Somerset Levels on a cold wet February Sunday morning alongside fishermen. They watch their float and even if they do catch anything put it back. So if it is not for their dinner, I have always felt they must be out there for the same spiritual enrichment.
Churchill in his wonderful little book, Painting as a Pastime, describes how painting not only helped him to cope with the tremendous pressures of life, but also to absorb the colours and details of wherever he was and to appreciate the skill of the old masters. For me drawing and painting on trains, at airports, being arrested by the Congo and recently by the Imperial Palace in Ethiopia for alleged spying have opened many doors and hugely added to the richness of my life.
Van Gogh's cypress trees painted shortly before he shot himself convey to me the extraordinary power and depth of his feeling. I like to say that I don’t paint for the result, and am certainly not a van Gogh. But if these efforts help some of you to share the joy that painting has brought in to my life then that is a bonus!
Lance Clark
