Painting Holidays in the Dordogne , France > Prehistoric Cave Art > Prehistoric Cave Art Pgae 2

 

Prehistoric Cave Art

a contemporary artist's personal response

 

 

watercolour of a cave, dordogne

'Inside Looking Out' Cave in the Dordogne.

Watercolour 25 x 32 cm © the artist

Why this feeling of deep mystery upon entering a cavern, the dark spaces beneath the earth?

 

 

 

In Plato's cavern, the images flickering indistinctly on the walls...

 

 

paleolithic visions, lascaux

Grotte de Lascaux, Dordogne, circa 23 000 BC

 

 

" So the animals on the walls there are back in the darkness from which they came and in which they have resided for so long.

 

We have no word for this darkness, this darkness which is very closely connected with light. We have no word for this darkness. It is not night and it is not ignorance.

 

Maybe from time to time we all cross this darkness. seeing everything tha we can distinguish from nothing. Maybe it is the interior from which everything came."

- John Berger

 

 

painting of a cave wall, dorgdogne

 

 

"L'Esprit de la Vallée" Oil. 56 x 76 cm . © Adam Cope.

 

 

 

One of the Bisons from the Bison Frieze, Font de Gaume, Dordogne, SW France. Polychrome Partiel Art, late MagdalŽnien

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font de gaume, rock cliff face

'Font de Gaume' (detail) Dordogne, Watercolour © Adam Cope

 
 

 

next page - Red Oxide Handprints & Mythological Images from the Paleoolithic Era

 
 

 
 

 

 

More paintings from the Dordogne by Adam Cope

Painting Holidays in the Dordogne, France