Still Life

CAMINO STAGE 22: Oviedo to Grado Camino Primitivo Route of El Camino de Santiago. 18 miles, Day 24, 13 days to go

Artists over the years have created Still Life paintings to show us a new way of looking at the ordinary objects around us. The objects are imbued with a life beyond the ordinary. Some Still Life’s don’t do it for me but, French post Impressionistic painter Paul Cezanne’s Still Life speak to me. Today in the gathering drizzle of Asturias’s maritime damp climate, it felt like we’d stepped into one of Cezanne’s paintings and Still Life.

After a couple hours on the new Camino Primitivo Route, I said to Steve this was my favorite stage of all. I loved walking by the sea and beauty of the Norte coastal route but being on the Primitivo accompanied by bleating baby goats, a gurgling river, galloping horseback riders and passing by canyons that looked similar to those Steve and I hiked on while dating at university just felt like starting over in many ways. As we moved on in the stillness and quiet, I gained another understanding of what constitutes a still life. We mark this moment not in paint but renewal in our hearts.