Walk: West Portal Distance: 1 mile (bad air today), Pedal, Yoga
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| Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918), Birch Forest, 1902 |
So you've probably noticed CIWT has turned gold. Just temporary to honor Ciwt's favorite season.
And what better artist to honor today than the man who painted an artwork you'd find on many people's 'Favorites' list:
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| Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (Woman in Gold), 1907 |
Probably most famous for his intensely patterned and alluring portraits of women, it is very possible that the true love of Klimt's artistic life was landscape. Klimt was a socially difficult, near solitary man who whenever possible limited his activities to family and developing his artistic vision and techniques. Beginning in the late 1890's he began summering on the shores of Attersee, the largest lake in Austria, where he focused on the only genre aside from the figure that deeply interested him. At Attersee, he rose very early, took his painting tools with him into the woods and essentially communed with the trees, applying each dab of color individually perhaps as each leaf or section of bark spoke to him. Locals who encountered him noticed his fervor and called him Waldschrat or Forest Demon.
Ciwt has always loved walking in woods and can imagine how much peace and pleasure Klimt's times painting in nature must have offered him.
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