Marc Chagall



In Imitation of Marc Chagall,
W. F. Bellais, 2010



The first two weeks of September were spent on the Cote d'Azur of southern France. The experience included going to ancient villages and seeing the works of renown artists. Additionally, painting watercolors took much of the time. Virtually endless, the subject matter for watercolors included landscapes, odd ideas, and still life renditions of fruit and croissants.

Best of all the trip included a visit to the Matisse Chapel in Vence and and the Chagall Museum in Nice.

Matisse's simple idea of rendering thoughts in unadorned lines. His masterpiece, the Stations of the Cross in the Dominican Chapel in Vence, mesmerized me. I needed to study every panel. The work is highly imaginative and reflects a profound understanding of the Passion Story.

Chagall, however, grabbed my attention and held it. I still think about the paintings I saw at the Chagall Museum. In the museum a show of unusual surrealistic subjects or brilliant reds, cadmium yellow, and cerulean blue first attracted me. However, the permanent display of Chagall's depictions of Hebrew Bible themes enthralled me. The surrealistic depictions of Adam and Eve, the angels visiting Abraham and Sarah, and Song of Songs helped me see things differently (maybe even better).

On returning to the chateau overlooking the Mediterranean Sea I pulled out a piece of water color paper and worked on a parody of Chagall. The highly imaginative and sensual Song of Songs set of paintings stayed in my head. So, I tried to put on watercolor paper the spirit of Chagall.

He used vibrant color. The paintings were often defined by diagonal lines, and he used symbols to great affect. Further, he often included himself in his paintings. The latter feature, however, did not appear in his Biblical renditions; nevertheless, I put him in my parody.

While I do not wish to copy Chagall or Matisse, I do want to have the same spirit in my work.