Hello dear friends, in this 8th article, I said that I will talk about the sources of my pictures.
When I say source, I will talk about this land where I live, breathe and make me who I am. Because in these places where I feed, I get my strength from civilizations that have come for thousands of years. Do you know, 37 of the 58 cultures in the world are in these lands, in Anatolia, in Turkey? With such wealth, I do not have a shortage of resources. Wherever I turn my hand, wherever I look, I always find something when I turn my head. I look around, to my right and left, and I see them and take them. If you look at the history of these civilizations, you will see them there. In terms of historical places around me, wherever you dig, artifacts belonging to civilizations (castles, palaces, inns, baths, churches, madrasas, mosques, amphitheaters, aqueducts, cisterns, bridges, agoras, fountains, etc.) stones and forms belonging to columns. These forms are waiting there for you to discover and create beautiful works. Go and get them…
Dear readers, I will not enumerate all of these civilizations. Already, you can open and read them in history. I’ll list the available sources that, for me, are the subject of my paintings: I can list the works of Aegean civilizations (Phricia, Lycia, Lydia, etc.), Urartians, Romans, Byzantines, Great Seljuks, Anatolian Seljuks, and Ottomans. Wherever you are in Turkey, you will come across historical ruins that can inspire you from anywhere, including where you are. Therefore, take your paper, pen, or camera, make or take pictures of these places and beauties, record them, and start your research on them. You draw their patterns, color them and create compositions. In addition, by adding your philosophy, worldview, concept of life, and plastic idea to these, pictures and works of art that are entirely your own emerge.
Of course, to notice, understand and learn about them, you need to acquire a certain knowledge to see those beauties. Therefore, you have to read a lot, make observations, be curious, ask questions, and research. I create my paintings by discovering and researching them. How historical artifacts unearthed thousands of years ago, the height in that space, the empty-filled relationships, and the size and smallness of the stones and columns they used in their construction, the positioning of them as if they were flying in this space, this situation that attracts me, is the source of inspiration for my paintings. A Hagia Sophia, Süleymaniye, Selimiye, Three Vaults in Erzurum, Divriği mosque in Sivas, Aspendos in Antalya, Perge, Knidos in Datça, Halicarnassus in Bodrum If you go and see the Cacabey mosque in Kırşehir, Assos in Çanakkale, Ani Ruins in Kars, Akdamar island in Van, and Ahlat tombstones and thousands more, if you spend a few hours there and observe well, believe me, you will find something. You will find it, you will breathe, you will be happy, you will see that it is good for you and you will believe. Here I am collecting data for my paintings by making trips every three or four months for these works.
I’m starting to paint them in my workshop. But most of the time, I gather and learn information before I go to these places, and I research it consciously when I go there. And I’m taking it knowingly. It is necessary to scrutinize the History of Art and obtain strong information about them. So, you know what, where, and how to find it. The rest is up to you how you can make something out of them. Unknowingly, striving for things can become pointless.
When you look around like this, I am not saying you will see them, I am saying you will be able to see them. I mean, the word I say includes knowingly seeing. In this case, the information obtained by you is the most valuable and unique to you. This means that you, as a valuable person, love and respect yourself. And in life, there are flavors bought in your name. Let’s come, you have done the necessary research from the works here. Then it immediately came to creating your main images. Here, it doesn’t happen right away. You have to decide how they will move in the picture, where they should be located, and where they will flow. Sometimes these decisions of yours lead to various adventures that can shift in other directions once you start painting. At that time, you may have to suddenly change your mind and decide that it could be the same. Maybe it would be better this way. Therefore, the accumulation of knowledge and experience causes beautiful events to occur in your paintings and your life.
I wish you to act consciously in your life and to live a more meaningful and valuable life by adding your emotions to them…
Stay with love…
See you soon…
Murat Mete Agyar
