So many reasons to have lunch at Cooper House on the Cooper River, Pennsauken side. First of all, be sure, when you walk in to look at the paintings on the walls of the entry way. They are lovely. When I see them, each time I go to Cooper House, I am envious of the relaxed and contemplative mood they embody. I am an artist as well, but stuck in a kind of precision and angular realism, photographic, that I can't seem to break out of. These paintings are what I would like to be able to do - and I rarely say that about anything. I like my work and am pleased with all I make (although that self-satisfaction may offend the native puritan soul of my America.
Anyhow, it surprised me when I went there so many times that almost no one that I walked in with, stopped to look at the paintings. People are lost in thought or just so inundated with imagery from advertising or decorative wall crap that they walked right by these gorgeous painting. I had to make them stop and look - these are too beautiful to miss.
My second surprise was that no one at Cooper House seemed to know the artist's name. I wanted to see more of his work and I thought he might have a web site. Finally, a manager who had been on vacation in Ireland returned and gave me a first name and a phone number. I hadn't actually wanted to phone "Ron" but just to look up his work, however, this morning, I did call, and he was very gracious when he answered the phone.
After the compliments I had waited so long to deliver, I got his web info. and some great tips - "don't get attached to the final product" - "work in a smaller scale" - "work in a shorter time frame." He told me he stops his car on the road and does quick landscape painted sketches. I will try this approach and see if it can break me out of my old pattern. It is time to grow - it is after all - spring!
http://www.workbyronjohnson.com
But the work at the site is his larger, more important work and all I was writing about were the small landscape studies so to see them, go to the Cooper House, which is where I will be today at 12:30 having lunch with a friend for her birthday!
Happy trails!
Jo Ann
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