What I'm Reading: Celia Paul "Letters to Gwen John"

 

I've been eagerly awaiting Celia Paul's Letters to Gwen John since late 2020. I read Celia's first book, Self Portrait when it first came out. I still think that it is one of the greatest art books ever written.

I appreciate her honesty and rawness. The book is a love letter not just to Gwen John but to the act of painting itself. I am still reading it, savoring it slowly. 

"I think about how to reconcile living and valuing life while at the same time renouncing it, and how it might be possible for me to tame and curb my longing, anxiety and loneliness by knowing when a painting is done or a person has left, knowing how to move on purposefully, without resignation, but with peace."