This year I don’t live in Andalucia anymore, but I’m still working on my series of drawings and prints Plants of Andalucia. And again, the change of climate from the sunny south to not so sunny central Europe has been influencing my artwork. There is no way to get around it – the Slovenian winter leads me deeper inside my Slavic mind 😉 It’s making me think about questions which appeared a year ago, but were suppressed by the brightness and abundance of the Spanish outside world 🙂 As a result, this time I am presenting you drawings depicting an orange from two different perspectives. The first one was created a year ago in Spain, and the second one made recently in Slovenia.
Citrus sinensis
The sunny side of the winter. Oranges, of course! Winter, beware!
When living in the Southern Spain, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of oranges all around. My slavic eye, used to the white/grey surrounding decorated with red glass balls in December, was constantly surprised by bright orange fruits growing on green trees along the street. This natural decoration would light up my days till the late spring. One day I just saw huge containers filled with oranges standing next to trees. My heart squeaked sadly. But, to my surprise, it turned out to be just a change of decoration. I didn’t have to wait long to see beautiful, white blossoming flowers instead.
From the series Plants of Andalucia, Joanna Klepadlo
Południe/ Noon
Orange, the sunny fruit of winter. You only have to peel it to feel its awakening aroma in your nostrils and to taste its sweetness. Do it now! Soon it’s going to be too late, the season is short. Later oranges will become dry, less sweet and less aromatic.
Surrounded by orange trees in sunny Andalucia, I was thinking about the shortness of powerful moments in life. How short is the season when the fruit is in its best possible stage to be eaten. How short the noon is, how little time we have to experience the sun at its zenith. And finally, how short is the time in our life when our potential is at its peak, when our physical condition and mental capacity allow us to do things which might be difficult or impossible to do as we get older. When is the noon of life? And how to not overlook this moment in our busy lives? And does it happen only once in life, really…?
This drawing was inspired by looking at a juicy, fresh orange. The vivid flesh of the fruit becomes an abstract expression of my feelings and thoughts around this theme. The title, Południe (“Noon”), has a double meaning in my native language: it means both ‘noon’ and ‘south’.
From the series Plants of Andalucia, Joanna Klepadlo
More about the project Plants of Andalucia you can find in the previous post which you can read here. My work in process you can follow on Facebook.
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