Emily and company

I’m a chronic reader and usually have at least one book on the go at all times. But I also have a few of my own classics “wells” that I’ve read many times and still go back to for inspiration. One such book is Emily Carr’s ” Hundreds and Thousands”. It’s really a collection of her journal entries over her lifetime as an artist and gives an intimate insight into who she was and why she painted the way she did.

I came across this entry the other day and thought I’d post it. In it she records her reaction to seeing the work of the Group of Seven for the first time in 1927.

“Oh God, what have I seen? Where have I been? Something has spoken to the very soul of me, wonderful, mighty, not of this world. Chords way down in my being have been touched. Dumb notes have struck chords of wonderful tone. Something has called out of somewhere. Something in me is trying to answer.”

How amazing is it that we can be so moved by paint marks on canvas, or noises made by instruments or human voice, or words written on paper…

1 thought on “Emily and company

  1. Paula Wild

    Yes, how truly lucky we are to have the richness of the arts to inspire, refresh and sustain us. Lovely image yuo’ve posted with this blog!

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