le pingouin et moi

le pingouin et moi
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

may interesting creatures cross your paths in the most unexpected of places...
bonne année!

in the window of an antique shop on the vaunted quai voltaire, convenes one ventripotent penguin who admires his lofty double - an elongated ideal - all day in the reflection of a carnival mirror.

the view from the louvre is quite concise, and the matitudinal sunshine does not cross the street to disturb his frigid self-regard...

now and then passersby startle upon these inquiline twins in upstanding exile, whose exhibited statehood obscures the true nature of their showcase domicile.

"penguin in a window" by g. verster

FDSV 1836

FDSV 1836
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

FDSV 1836 [2006] oil on linen, 20 x 25 cm

joyeux noêl, mes amis!

FDSV 1828

FDSV 1828
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

FDSV 1828 [2006] oil on linen, 20 x 25 cm

"space voider" squiggle from an 1828 french notary document...

plumbline

in the haste of schedules for inconsequential needs,
mired in the entanglement of trivial minutiae...
a faint line stretches down,
pulling through the multiplicity -
weighted straight for gravity's fermata...
calming the palpitations,
a zero-hour panacea.

"plumbline" by g. verster

french doors I

french doors I
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french doors I [2006] oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm

front door in the bastille area...

french doors II

french doors II
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french doors II [2006] oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm {SOLD}

skinny door inside a cathedral...

cube mystérieux [above parc montsouris]

cube mystérieux [above parc montsouris]
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

cube mystérieux [above parc montsouris] [2006] oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm

in search of the ateliers of braque, dali et al near the parc montsouris...

[hovering above a tangle of dead vines, a cubic apparition - stark and minimal against the late afternoon sky... a purist ghost in esse]

french chairs IV

french chairs IV
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french chairs IV [2006] oil on canvas, 25 x 25 cm

tête-à-tête, at an antique fair...

french chairs III

french chairs III
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french chairs III [2006] oil on canvas, 25 x 25 cm

stacked, outside café la palette...

penguin in a window

in the window of an antique shop on the vaunted quai voltaire, convenes one ventripotent penguin...
he admires his lofty double - an elongated ideal - all day in the reflection of a carnival mirror.
the view from the louvre is quite concise, and the matutinal sunshine does not cross the street to disturb his frigid self-regard.
passersby startle upon these inquiline twins in upstanding exile, whose exhibited statehood obscures the true nature of their showcase domicile.

"penguin in a window" by g. verster

french chairs II

french chairs II
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french chairs II [2006] oil on canvas, 25 x 25 cm

waiting, at an antique shop...

french chairs I

french chairs I
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

french chairs I [2006] oil on canvas, 25 x 25 cm

stacked, in a left bank window...

a room in the marais

the first order of mistresses cry their hearts out in serene misery after contemplating long nocturnal walks in the darkness of the place des vosges...
forgetting that monsieur victor hugo keeps watch from his officious perch, as a thousand gossamer pages flutter out his sentimental windows...
nevermore for the careful acolyte of these wandering mistresses, now missing for hours and hours from their convivial sanctum of self-loathing and benign caresses...

from "a room in the marais" by g. verster

above rue charles V [pleine lune]

above rue charles V [pleine lune]
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

above rue charles V [pleine lune] [2006] oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm

in the shadow of the alabaster moon glowing pale fire, mild passions are smuggled...

[and obscured for later disbursement on some other night - when the moon hangs low over another reclaimed isle...softly lighting the steps down to the cimmerian sea]

above rue charles V [saint-paul-saint-louis]

above rue charles V [saint-paul-saint-louis]
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

above rue charles V [saint-paul-saint-louis] [2006] oil on linen, 30 x 30 cm {SOLD}

as a vespertine veil descends upon the dome of saint-paul-saint-louis, the medieval soliloquy pervades once more these narrow streets of le marais...

[not far from here sits a quiet room where a pleasured violin can be heard moaning softly across the courtyard - and in the evening of constancy, the unseen bird from the garden of the marquis de brinvilliers answers back...with the sweetest of poisoned notes]

[excerpted from 'a room in the marais' by g. verster, 2004]

rue de nevers

rue de nevers
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

rue de nevers [2006] oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

a dark quiet street across from the pont neuf curves into an impasse...

[a little old man wearing a cravat and bedroom slippers stands outside his home recounting his war years as a resistance fighter and his escape from a prison camp - an extempore living history lesson in a lost in time corner... on a fading afternoon in paris]

bis damnum

high upon the silent mirador, he surveys the fraying contusions of a wayward year:
the defensive moves of love's disentanglement/the abrupt denial of love's consummate gift/the fraught hiatus of love in suspension/and finally,
the fading away of the love that brought him forth...
no more the layers of warmth nor certain conflations of presences nor anchoring of love's compulsions.
he descends from on high and invents again...

to other skies...[rising above]

to other skies...[rising above]
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

to other skies...[rising above] [2006] oil on linen, 30 x 30 cm {SOLD}

"high upon the silent mirador, he surveys the fraying contusions of a wayward year"*...

[the young architect, elegant in whites, perches upon the wall and raises his arm up - pointing towards the far distance... in search perhaps for "certain conflations of presences"*]

*from "bis damnum" by g. verster

to other skies...[crossing over]

to other skies...[crossing over]
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

to other skies...[crossing over] [2006] oil on linen, 30 x 30 cm

from the eyes of the father as a student of architecture...

[small black and white shots of structures and places unrecorded - studies, research for projects long forgotten... resurrected decades later in the paintings of the child who never became an architect]

church in frontenay-en-parisii

church in frontenay-en-parisii
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

church in frontenay-en-parisii [2006] oil on linen, 30 x 30 cm

a sunday brocante is underway in the maze of streets around the village church...

[above all the petty commerce going on looms sacrosanct stone beneath the benign skies - a placid reminder of "the holy hush of ancient sacrifice"*...to subdue, to comfort, to reassure]

*from "sunday morning" by wallace stevens

early spring on the marne

early spring on the marne
Originally uploaded by gverster_artwork.

early spring on the marne [2006] oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

early sunday morning and the entire village has emptied out its attics and spilled the chaotic jumble onto the streets...

[across a little bridge, a scene of timeless serenity - a lone rowboat on the dark still water... quietly fêted by the sublime buddings of an early french spring]

mont blanc and black marble

leave the sturm und drang of quoditian life for the
altitude and the purity...
[they engraved the word "congo" in black marble and gilded it to a dull sheen]

from jack's wallpaper

maori warriors carry their dead queen home to their
sacred mountain...
[dreaming of a charming luncheon in great britain by the riverside]

paris is calling

a vespertine veil descends upon the jesuit dome
of saint-paul-saint-louis...
[the pleasured violin is beginning to moan softly from across a courtyard]

maurizio's elephant

the elephant draped in a white sheet challenges us
not to be afraid of love...
[they cut holes for his eyes and his trunk even though he is not real]

barcelona nights

rilke reminds us of the gesture with which little flowers
open in the morning...
[an old bottle drying rack is transformed into a duchampian floor lamp]

[[painting by cy twombly at the pompidou centre, paris]]

wie Gott in Frankreich...

in the off chance that we are not living our lives fully,
think of god in france...
[another day, another dollar is not the most satisfying of formulae]