Nix wie 'Raus! Walking, A National Austrian Hobby

   When you first arrive in a new place, whether as a tourist or with a longer stay in mind you take every opportunity to go out and see as much as you can. In order to absorb the atmosphere of a place, how it smells, what it sounds like, the landscape, the people, the transportation, not to mention what is sold in the shops, many kilometers are clocked each day. So when after lunch, during my first visit to my then future husband's house, someone suggested a walk, I naively suspected it was for my benefit. To show the visitor a little bit of the local area. Little did I know then that the next decade and a half would be punctuated by this ever reoccurring theme.

  The after lunch walk, which can be delayed to accommodate a nap for the older generation, is both a method of encouraging digestion and a way of making sure to get enough 'fresh air,' a thing very much sought after. I think of the episode in Jeeves and Wooster where one of the members of the Drones club while complaining about being away from London says, 'This fresh air is getting into lungs' and immediately goes inside. The lounge lizard is not a welcome character in this place of wellness, nature, and efficiency. Interestingly, the fear of the chill (beware of moving air, especially around the neck) does not seem to apply to getting out of the house and it is common to hear, 'there is no wrong weather, just the wrong clothes'. Now be that as it may, and I certainly would not like to be the one to take up a discussion on the pros and cons of being out in all weathers, this innate desire to get outside is not constrained to the after meal jaunt but rather begins there. On weekends, holidays, and long weekends the hills and mountains call out to valley dwellers, urging them into their cool hights to partake of the thin air in refreshing gulps. Guests are herded from their hosts dining rooms and set upon the trail for restorative strolls.  And of course like most habits that are actually good for you the result is that the takers of walks do often become more vigorous turning out, not those feeble, breakable elderly senior citizens one sometimes sees in my own homeland but rather leathery, tough, sinuous, hardened old men and women with the stamina to do whatever they want to for as long as they care to do it. And it often seems that what they want is go for a walk.

As a New Yorker, or maybe because I am an American, or simply as a result of just being myself  I have always enjoyed walking (or cycling) from point a to point b. I also like hiking to a specific lookout point or to the top. I am less impressed with the idea of making a loop over and over again for the sole reason of making that loop. In my second or third month of living here, as I realized that going for a walk was a natural part of the daily rhythm and could not be substituted by listening to music, playing board games, dancing, watching movies or just leaning back and relaxing. I saw a glimpse of my older self, trudging along, circling round and round, no goal in sight, accomplishing nothing and just wearing myself down generally. I am relieved to say that the present isn't as bleak my premonition had suggested. I did have to adjust the way I looked at the walks themselves. And here is where I will finally tie these ramblings back to art.

   Austria is very much a four seasons country, in fact, the four seasons are so prolific that they often all occur within the same few weeks. Well, at least they seem to. I have a wardrobe bridging the gap between cold rainy, sleet-like weather requiring coats, and extreme heat where only the very lightest garment is accessorized by sandals, sunglasses and a hat. Anyway, as a result of the dramatic weather and seasons, nature stages dramatic changes over the course of these seasons.

Early spring with its vibrant short yellow-green grass is as shortlived as the steaming hills of a rainy summers day and the deep, heavy sun of autumn reflecting off the jewel-like tones of the abundant fruits, nuts, berries, and brush growing wild along the edges of the paths. It is also a very fruitful country. Mushrooms, nuts, wild berries, and greens can be collected virtually all year round from even the most urban areas. I was impressed that a salad could be harvested even from a front lawn. These seasons with their specific produce provide rich inspiration for all artists but especially those interested in botanical art.

Cezanne purportedly painted Mont St. Victoire over 60 times and indeed the changing light and differing foliage create varying motifs to even the most known landscape. The opaque water of a fast moving river after heavy rain is much different in both color and quality than the slowly swirling eddies of that same river as it lazily winds its way along, carrying its glitteringly, snakelike cargo, searching for a way to a far-off sea. To whom, if not the artist, is it left to capture these moments in time, recording natures richness and texture.

How much more pressing is the natural abundance of the flora of a region to a botanical artist. Where a body of water might be subject of 60 + paintings, the wild plants along a stretch of only one kilometer could yield hundreds of images, if only time would allow. But of course, it never does.

As I walk now, I take in the season's changes and bounty, bringing my camera along with me as often as possible, collecting hundreds of pictures to be used in my studio as inspiration. These photos serve not only to portray subject matter that I want to paint but also to remind me of the atmosphere of the day on which they were taken, providing a 'mood' for a painting. The pictures included in this post are from yesterdays walk, when I, without any suggestion said, 'what about a walk'? Now if that isn't integration, I don't know what is.

Do you love to walk? Are you more of a point a- to point b walker or a loop stroller? Let me know in the comments.

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