Songs of changing colours

In these times of many-coloured conflict, I felt the need to share with you the joys of multi-coloured floating watercolours that complement each other. They merge, jump, wave, chat, dance, wink, producing emotional harmonies, songs. These colours are medicine for the soul. Get carried away! Sing with me!

watercolour on paper, 68 x 46 cm, 2024.

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You can get in touch with me at: normanperryman@gmail.com

The Passing of Time

The Passing of Time 

Each year, as we gaze on the beauty of falling cherry-blossoms (a ritual in Japan), we are intensely aware that, when they are all fallen, like a movie, or a concert, there's nothing left - only memories.

I love the beauty of the short Japanese haiku poem. An art form reduced to essentials, it suggests movement and the passing of time, so we find ourselves reflecting on life.

                                               Old pond

                                           a frog jumps in

                                             the sound of water

                                                              (Basho 1644-1694) 

   Yes, at 90, life seems to be passing by faster than it used to be and I'm reflecting a lot about this. But rather than dwelling on regrets, I'm inspired to use my remaining time to celebrate the beauty of the transient. I plan to create a series of short liquid kinetic images (perhaps based on music) in which clouds of colour float across my projection screen, then like nature, change or disappear. My little rivers of colour will become an ode to nature and my creative way of waving goodbye.

I still treasure a collaboration in 2013 with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (leader Gordan Nikolić) and the composer/conductor Toshio Hosokawa. That work was called Cloud & Light, for shō and orchestra. The celebrated soloist Mayumi Miyata, clad in white, sat in front of the projection of my floating moons or planets that changed colours, according to the tones she played. 

There was no video-recording so this was a unique emotional experience for us all. Only the memory remains. An exercise in mindfulness and acceptation.

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 Many thanks to all you thousands of readers who have followed this blog since 2012. You can still find each one in the search bar on the lower right.

The Buddhist master of Mindfulness Thich Nhat Hahn, believed that the energy that we have shared will take on different forms, like changing clouds. My images have no digital limitations. They are forever universally available as part of the Cosmos. Who knows, you might also find some of them in the Cloud (YouTube?). _________________________________________________

The joys of intelligent listening

 

The joys of intelligent listening

On January 18th 2018, a devastating storm brought the whole of the Netherlands to a standstill. I happened to be one of many in my dentist's waiting-room. Conversations about the weather and more sprung up. A woman sitting next to me asked "And what is your work? "Oh, I'm an artist - I paint music." "Huh...? Wait a minute, you mean you've memorised the score and paint in synch with..... I'm a neurologist - how can your brain do all that in real time?" "Well, Doctor, my brain has been practising painting "movies" with a paintbrush for fifty years...It's a long story." That encounter in our dentist's waiting-room led to years of delightful discussion.

                                

Dr. Maaike van der Graaff, Neurologist, watercolour, 68 x 50 cm. 2019

A lot of people pretend to be listening, but they don't hear you because they are already preparing their reply. Yet if you can discover a common understanding, listening can be sheer joy.  When you give and take, it's like playing music together, it can be deeply moving and memorable. Musicians actually practise listening to each other. If only politicians could learn from their example!

Doctors who are good listeners show an intelligent interest in the whole person. "Tell me - how are you?" It's an invitation to share a lot more than just physical complaints. 

"Oh doctor, what a relief; you really hear what I'm saying. And I feel seen and encouraged by your wise smile of understanding. I know my time is nearly up, but I could give you a hug. Your words are music to my ears!"

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The Wound-Dresser

 

The Wound-Dresser

by Walt Whitman & John Adams

How can any artist find a way to visualise the indescribable tragedies of the present wars of destruction, suffering and death? I turn for help to the great American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892), who during the extremely bloody American Civil War (1861-1865), volunteered to work in hospitals to care for the wounded, nurse them and comfort them as they were dying. His experience inspired his famous poem The Wound-Dresser. These notes are in honour of all those anonymous heroes and heroines who today are working themselves to death as "wound-dressers", in the most traumatic circumstances.

"Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,

Strait and swift to my wounded I go, 

There they lie on the ground after the battle brought in,

Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground,

Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd hospital,

To the long rows of cots up and down each side I return, 

to each and all one after another I draw near, not one do I miss....."

In 1989 the composer John Adams set this poem to 19 minutes of haunting music for chamber orchestra and baritone. In 2010 I painted continuous fluid images, projected large on-screen, for two deeply moving performances in The Netherlands with the baritone David Wilson-Johnson and Holland Symfonia, conducted by Otto Tausk. My kinetic images were never recorded on video.

 

"An attendant follows holding a tray, he carries a refuse pail,

Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied, and filled again....

I onward go, I stop,

With hinged knees and steady hands to dress the wounds,

I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp but unavoidable,

One turns to me his appealing eyes - 

poor boy! I never knew you.

Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you."

"Come sweet death! Be persuaded

O beautiful death! In mercy, come quickly."

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The above link to John Adams includes some very perceptive, thought-provoking comments by the musician Sarah Cahill. Thank you Sarah.

 

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