Carpe Diem #1546 Abstract Autumn

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our Carpe Diem Autumn Retreat has ended. So I thought to choose a nice abstract piece of art, but this time the theme is "abstract autumn". What is abstract autumn? Well ... a painting in which you cannot see its trees or something, but through the colors you know immediately that the painting has to do with autumn. In the modern painting "abstract autumn" you cannot see trees or bushes, but you can see the colors of autumn, red, yellow, orange, brown and all kinds of little differences in those colors ... the colors are autumn and it gives you the opportunity to go with the flow, to think outside of the box to create your Japanese poetry like haiku or choka.

yellow, red,
orange and deep purple
dance

© Chèvrefeuille

What do you see if you read this haiku? I think it's an abstract autumn haiku inspired on the painting hereafter.

Abstract Autumn (image found on Pinterest)

Try to imagine autumn through this painting. Haiku is an impression ... what's your impression?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun, go with the flow, think outside the box and share your impression with us all.

Carpe Diem #1247 Abstract Painting (the logo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of this modern art month here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. It was a marvelous journey along all different kinds of modern art and I have read really wonderful Japanese poetry. This month was great and after this month you also know a little bit more about my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands.
In my hometown we have a lot of beautiful art works all around the city, in almost every park you can find art. That art is not only modern, but also more "normal" for example the following:

This beautiful sculpture of a horse rider was a gift from our friends in Dimitrov (Russia) and it stands in a park just around the corner of the local hospital were I work.

Horse rider (Vladimir Soerovtsev)

And this is just one of the many art pieces in my hometown, but that's not our theme for this last episode. This last episode I just leave you with the painting that's on the background of our Kai, the logo of this month, an abstract painting. Just look at it, take it in, become one with it and become inspired.

Abstract Painting Oil on Canvas

tunnel of love
embraced by the dragon
to keep safe

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this month and I hope to inspire you next month with only beautiful images, because next month we will have a whole month full of Imagination ... because "one image says more than thousand words" and we don't even have to use that many words ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 6th at noon (CET). I hope to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1244 In Utero (by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our Modern Art month is almost over. We only have four days to go in which I am trying to inspire you through modern art. This month we have seen the most beautiful pieces of modern art and I have read wonderful responses.

Today I have a wonderful "modern art" psychedelic painting by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci for you. This painting is titled "In Utero" and it's a beautiful painting in which greenish colors are very Obvious, but also the figure(s) in the painting have a kind of ghostly image ... as I think is what psychedelic means.

Guglielmo Alberto Nacci (Saatchi Art)

And this is what he tells about himself and his ideas at the website of Saatchi Art:

['...] "I am a self-taught painter. The passion for drawing manifested itself since my childhood. I started using oil at the age of 18. The starting point of my artistic path are the introspective experiences of adolescence. Through painting I tried to give voice to the chaotic turmoil full of unravelling intuitions and contradictions of adolescence.

The search of Truth obsesses the life of many. But that same obsessing search distracts attention from the very object. Truth is all around us, Truth is right in front of our eyes and it manifests itself with Beauty: the Perfection of Nature. 

Artists are translators. "Our language interpose itself between learning and the truth as a dusty glass, a deforming mirror. The Eden language was like clear window, through which a light of full comprehension flowed". (George Steiner, After Babel). "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all, Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know''. (John Keats)" [...]

I like the idea "artists are translators" I think that's so right ... in our haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form we translate the simple all day beauty of nature ... yes we are translators.

In Utero (oil-painting by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci)

A wonderful painting ... very much in tune with the most important theme of haiku ... nature, but also in tune with humanity and battles humans sometimes have to fight with theirselves or with others. What do I see in this painting ...

The nude person looks translucent, he touches the "invisible wall" between him and a part of the garden in which he is walking around. It looks like he is searching for a way to escape, maybe he is lost or he has had a sad experience, a crime or he has lost a loved one. He looks desperate, but as he would find the gutch to look around him than he would see door (in the right of the painting) or maybe that window through which the moon can be seen ... I think with this painting Guglielmo Alberto Nacci has given an image to his quest for the right path, or the path to find his purpose ...

I love this painting ... I would love to be part of that painting to feel the emotions caught in it. It brought memories back, sweet memories by the way ...

painting on the wall
the touch of it makes the mystery
a new world

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this (delayed) episode, I enjoyed for sure creating it and I am looking forward to all of your responses.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1243 In The Beginning (Paul Klee, 1916)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I told you already a little bit about Paul Klee, one of Robert Delaunay's inspirators, and I promised to share a painting by Paul Klee. Well ... I will do what I promised. Today I have a wonderful painting by Paul Klee for you, but let me first tell you a little bit more about him.

Paul Klee (1879-1940), a Swiss-born painter, printmaker and draughtsman of German nationality, was originally associated with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and subsequently taught at the Bauhaus, the widely influential German art school of the interwar period. Klee's diverse body of work cannot, however, be categorized according to any single artistic movement, or "school." His paintings, which are at times fantastic, childlike, or otherwise witty, served as an inspiration to the New York School, as well as many other artists of the 20th century.
Klee was fundamentally a transcendentalist who believed that the material world was only one among many realities open to human awareness. His use of design, pattern, color, and miniature sign systems all speak to his efforts to employ art as a window onto that philosophical principle. (Source: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-klee-paul.htm)

Paul Klee, 1911 (image found on Wikipedia)

I have to admit that I had never heard from him until yesterday. So today I searched for examples of his work to use here. He has created wonderful paintings, but I was caught by his "In The Beginning", a painting he created in 1916. As I saw that painting I immediately thought back at our episode on "sacred geometry" in which I gave you a sneak preview in to the matter of "sacred geometry". I think Paul Klee would have loved the idea of "sacred geometry". Let me give you the painting for today.

In The Beginning by Paul Klee

Look at the painting ... what do you see? The first thing that catches my eye is "Nautilus-shell" shape, the basic form of all and everything, light ... as we saw in the "sacred geometry". This "Nautilus-shape" is in the middle of the painting and in a way it brought the first verses of Genesis in mind:

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis Chapter one verses 1-4/ NIV)

Than I see the colors of the rainbow, also mentioned in the Bible. I love how this painting tells us in a way the start of Creation ... awesome.

Paul Klee says about this painting:

[...] 'Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.' [...]

"My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will", that sounds almost like he paints through the energy of Spirit or something ... sounds great.

Do you create your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form as an obedient instrument of a remote will? I think that happens sometimes ... a haiku "pops up" triggered by something around you. You write it down as if your hand is not yours ... That's the power of haiku ... the power of nature ...

first sunbeam
reflects in the mirror
shimmering rainbow

© Chèvrefeuille

Sorry for the delay of this post, I had a busy day at work. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 31st at noon (CET). For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1232 abstract autumn (unknown artist)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you (maybe) know right at this moment our Carpe Diem Autumn Retreat is on and runs towards its end. So I thought to choose another nice abstract piece of art, but this time the theme is "abstract autumn". What is abstract autumn? Well ... a painting in which you cannot see its trees or something, but through the colors you know immediately that the painting has to do with autumn. In the modern painting "abstract autumn" you cannot see trees or bushes, but you can see the colors of autumn, red, yellow, orange, brown and all kinds of little differences in those colors ... the colors are autumn and it gives you the opportunity to go with the flow, to think outside of the box to create your Japanese poetry like haiku or choka.

yellow, red,
orange and deep purple
dance

© Chèvrefeuille

What do you see if you read this haiku? I think it's an abstract autumn haiku inspired on the painting I have chosen for your inspiration.

abstract autumn (unknown artist) (image found on Pinterest)

Try to imagine autumn through this painting. Haiku is an impression ... what's your impression?

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 13th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, geometric patterns (unknown artist), later on. For now .... have fun, go with the flow, think outside the box and share your impression with us all.