There’s something strange about standing in front of a building or group of buildings or a square for 2 to 3 hours and watching what is before your eyes for no reason but the sheer joy of it.
You see the light change in way that is quite surprising. The changes can be fast or slow but everything changes. It is like a dance for the eyes but it requires stopping and watching intently.
Certainly, today everyone is trying to find something useful for everything. Observing is gratuitous and painting from observation seems even anachronistic. You may say that a painting is useful but I will argue that it is not necessary.
While choosing my spot to set up my easel, I was struck by how every square meter of the public space was ‘used’: this for the street,this for parking, this for the sidewalk (to walk, not stand), this for the cafe table, this for signpost, etc.
There remains few places, on the square usually, where one can just stop. And look. Fewer yet, in this busy city opposed by cars and buses, where one can stand and paint.
