Plein Air in the Midst of Summer Heat - Gwangdocheon Hydrangea Road
Plein Air in the Midst of Summer Heat - Gwangdocheon Hydrangea Road
As I gazed at them for a long time, an uncontrollable desire to paint welled up inside me... Weather? What does it matter... Following my three plein air sessions at Haman's Agyang Ecological Park last month and last week's session in Donam-dong, I summoned great courage to capture the beauty of the hydrangeas directly onto the canvas.
It doesn’t matter if my drawing isn’t good.
If I couldn't pour out these overwhelming emotions onto a canvas, I felt like I would go crazy. (If I had learned guitar or piano, I suppose I would have composed a score instead..)
As expected, plein air painting is never easy.
While winters with freezing fingers are tough, summers where sweat pours endlessly down your spine are just as formidable.
There was even a crazy year when I went out for possessed, obsessive plein air painting more than four days a week, even under extreme heatwave advisories.
Last year, the hydrangeas bloomed so prettily between Jeogu Port and Myeongsa Beach in Geoje. I went there several times until just a few days ago, but perhaps because of alternate-year bearing (skipped flowering), they hardly bloomed this year—a disappointment I couldn't help.
I love Geoje, so I go there often.
Especially because I love Hakdong Beach, I visit frequently.
Hakdong Beach holds a special place in my heart.
It is a place of longing where I used to walk occasionally, listening to the sound of the waves with a friend who has now turned into a star.
A place I run to without realizing it when I miss someone so much it brings tears to my eyes...
People sometimes ask, "Why are you being so sentimental all by yourself?"...
Yet it is the only place where my heart finally finds peace. . . Hakdong.. . .
Some days it is dazzlingly beautiful, some days the rain falls so painfully that it makes my whole body sway, some days a chilling wind blows so hard that it's difficult even to stand, and other days it wraps itself in fog, refusing to easily reveal its heart...
If Haeundae Beach was the place I always ran to when I lived in Busan, Hakdong Beach has quietly settled as the sanctuary of my heart now that I live in Tongyeong.
Geoje...
People often ask, "Even though you see the sea every day, why do you practically go to Geoje every day when it has the same old sea?" But Geoje's mountains and seas draw me in with an inexplicable, mysterious charm unlike any other place. . . . The wetlands of Dundeok, the ecological park wetlands of Osu Village in Sancheon-ri, the white longing of Gujora Beach, Deokwon Beach with its charming little pier, Dumo Beach with its unique composition... Above all, the place that makes me stay is still Hakdong Beach. . . . Passing the scenery of Dadae, moving through the dazzling Yeocha, and reaching Hongpo Observatory where the mystical sight of Daesobyeongdo Islands comes into view... . .
Godang Village, where the Sandal Bridge looks like a masterpiece painted over the water... . . A place filled with beauty and life's stories, where you can wander all day without ever feeling tired... . . The sanctuary of my heart... . . Geoje..
. Passing Gujora, Hakdong, Sinseondae, Dadae, Deokwon, and Gabe, resting for a moment in Dundeok, and crossing the old Geoje Bridge—at that moment, I seamlessly return to the real world. . . When I traveled to Yeoju, I miss those times when I used to make a habit of circling around Geoje from Tongyeong, spending two nights there before heading back down. . . Time flows on... . . Buried in the sound of the waves, those who vanished into the distance... Those I long for can no longer be seen...
Why do I walk alone upon the empty, rounded pebbles? .. . .
From Tongyeong... . .
Gyeom . .
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