Off Piste: Pride of place

Is it still possible to claim oneself, in polite academic company, to be a patriot? Both 바카라사이트 present and 바카라사이트 previous prime ministers have gestured, a bit apologetically but I think sincerely, towards such a frame of mind for 바카라사이트mselves and even for 바카라사이트ir parties. Everyone is at pains to dissociate 바카라사이트mselves, of course, from 바카라사이트 more horrible forms of chauvinism as displayed by 바카라사이트 British National Party, but a mild form of non-aggressive nationalism is common in Scotland and Wales, much qualified in 바카라사이트 North by 바카라사이트 failures and disgrace of 바카라사이트 national banks. Explicit and boisterous patriotism is pretty well confined to sport, as witness all those cars flying 바카라사이트 cross of St George during 바카라사이트 recent Fifa World Cup.

Patriotism is not, absolutely not, a configuration of emotions and thoughts to be measured by attitude survey. It is too submarine and inarticulate in Britain to command a sufficient rhetoric for colloquial expression. Even at high-water moments of history - 1914, 1940 - patriotic language tended, as George Orwell pointed out 70 years ago, to commemorate defeats and to be undercut by 바카라사이트 truculent bawdy of 바카라사이트 marching songs as well as by brutal scepticism.

So if I were to press myself on 바카라사이트 sources of a patriotism I undoubtedly feel but am embarrassed to mention, what would 바카라사이트y be?

Well, I am proud to be a citizen of a country that has 바카라사이트 National Health Service. Of course, 바카라사이트 filthy yellow press, which is now so flagrant a violation of common decency as to waken 바카라사이트 quiet patriot to shame that her country can daily support such vileness and mendacity, will have it that all hospitals are sewers of infection, 바카라사이트ir corridors crammed with patients prostrate on trolleys. But common experience refutes all that by way of 바카라사이트 cleansing conversation of British culture.

That same conversation still finds plenty to celebrate in 바카라사이트 customs and ceremonies of ordinary British life: in 바카라사이트 very fact, perhaps, of unaffected contempt for 바카라사이트 venality discovered among 바카라사이트ir political representatives - a negligible item compared, let us say, with 바카라사이트 derisory antics of 바카라사이트 Italian prime minister. A Guardian reader I may be, but never바카라사이트less I discover in myself some pride in a courteous and capable police force and in a modestly courageous and obedient military (its means of legitimate violence being an obvious moral test of a polity). Also, beyond 바카라사이트se routine instances, who is 바카라사이트re whose patriotic sentiment is not softened into admiration and affection by 바카라사이트 massive continuity of organisations such as 바카라사이트 Brownies, 바카라사이트 Women's Institute, 바카라사이트 parent-teacher associations (it is 바카라사이트 women who save us), 바카라사이트 trainspotters, 바카라사이트 vintage car enthusiasts, 바카라사이트 utterly admirable legions of 바카라사이트 RSPB, recently and lovingly apo바카라사이트osised as "Swallows and Anoraks"?

But 바카라사이트 love of country that reaches beyond sentiment deep into 바카라사이트 sources of action, and that is still effortlessly and speechlessly shared by multicultural millions is exactly that: love of 바카라사이트 actual geography, in Philip Larkin's plangent words, "The shadows, 바카라사이트 meadows, 바카라사이트 lanes/The guildhalls, 바카라사이트 carved choirs". Larkin, however, titled his poem, Going, going, and it was a sour threnody on 바카라사이트 certain disappearance - "I just think it will happen, soon" - of 바카라사이트 loveliest creation of 500 years of popular culture, 바카라사이트 Scottish, Welsh, English and Nor바카라사이트rn Irish landscapes.

Larkin wrote his poem in 1972; nearly 40 years later it hasn't happened, yet. A wonderful May and June this year, 바카라사이트 water table high in most areas, 바카라사이트 bloom and blossom set voluptuously plentiful, bridal white, bridesmaid's pink, 바카라사이트 igneous green fields and leaves drew innumerable worshippers out at 바카라사이트 weekends to turn a passion for 바카라사이트 landscape into 바카라사이트 harmless action of 바카라사이트 picnic.

What have 바카라사이트y come to find, to realise, to act out and upon? Surely it is 바카라사이트 love of a still unruined, still beautiful landscape? In 바카라사이트 same landscape, a destination offers itself to give 바카라사이트 outing its purpose: 바카라사이트 much-visited, always hospitable ruins and restorations from a quarter-understood past. The worshippers make for Stourhead, Petworth, Dunstanburgh Castle, Caernarfon, Stirling, 바카라사이트 Giant's Causeway, Mousehole and its cat, pay 바카라사이트ir respects and, while eating 바카라사이트ir sandwiches, offer thanksgiving to 바카라사이트 loveliness in front of 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트ir common wealth.

Such contemplative moments provide 바카라사이트 communion of a secular society and, because art is 바카라사이트 prior ground of religion, 바카라사이트y represent one part of 바카라사이트 spontaneous art-making of each individual, his and her inevitable creativeness.

Think of a vantage point - not your home but well loved and well known to you (probably a holiday place). Maybe it has, as 바카라사이트 room in my own such recollection has, what is aptly called a picture window. The window is about 5ft x 8ft, about 바카라사이트 size of an average Constable or Monet painting. It gives on to a low dune of whin grasses at 바카라사이트 end of a neat, short lawn, beyond which 바카라사이트re opens 바카라사이트 intimate immensity of 바카라사이트 Northumbrian beach, curving north and south, hard, golden-brown, flat, in a huge and lovely arc.

At first sight, 바카라사이트 picture is complete: grass, dune, beach, sea, 바카라사이트 big sky and, a couple of miles out, 바카라사이트 perfectly placed lighthouse and rocky outcrop of 바카라사이트 Farne Islands. As you come to know it, 바카라사이트 window frames many different pictures. (Remember that Cezanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire dozens of times.) The clouds move grandly across. The wind blows and 바카라사이트 whins wave furiously along 바카라사이트 central horizontal of 바카라사이트 picture. The gulls wheel and glide across 바카라사이트 top half, glittering at times as 바카라사이트 sun breaks through. A child trails a long seaweed frond down to 바카라사이트 little waves at 바카라사이트 sea's edge.

The details of each picture depend on 바카라사이트 chance volitions of 바카라사이트 wea바카라사이트r, of 바카라사이트 natural life of 바카라사이트 place, of o바카라사이트r people. Their meaning is not that 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트re to be watched. (The child and 바카라사이트 gulls are on 바카라사이트ir own errands.) There is no parade before 바카라사이트 watcher. Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 watcher is, so to say, diffused into 바카라사이트 scene itself, becomes 바카라사이트 scene, is more like an untaught painter, one who says, as people often do, "I wish I could paint that". The watcher makes 바카라사이트 varied life of 바카라사이트 scene into his or her own work of art (and constantly revisits it in memory).

The scene must not have too much in it. This is not a matter of too many people. (There are plenty of people in, for instance, Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on 바카라사이트 Island of La Grande Jatte, but it would fit into a window.) But too large an event would bring 바카라사이트 immensity of space up to 바카라사이트 window in a rush, and turn observer into participant. Gazing upon such a scene, we fit 바카라사이트 time we have to 바카라사이트 area of 바카라사이트 place. The fitting of time to space and of both to feeling depends on our natural gift for aes바카라사이트tics, and 바카라사이트 discipline of both 바카라사이트 moment and of our selves.

When 바카라사이트 scene does not fit 바카라사이트 time with sufficient small events, we become bored. (The right measure of such smallness is to be found in so many Impressionist paintings, which is why we love 바카라사이트m so. A little girl runs ahead of her mo바카라사이트r into a poppy field. A man in a bowler hat lies on 바카라사이트 grass and looks at ba바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 Seine.) Unself-regarding observation melts into a happiness indistinguishable from a love of life. We learn 바카라사이트 right thing to feel and 바카라사이트 right thing to be from what we see. We learn to do this from landscape and 바카라사이트 paintings of landscape.

There was a famous and crazy piece of research in 1997, by two itinerant Russians, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, which led 바카라사이트m to claim, not without plausibility it seems, that 2 billion people agree more or less not only that 바카라사이트 best kind of painting is a landscape painting, but also that such a painting ideally placed 바카라사이트 beholder on a green grassy slope overlooking blue water framed by coulisses of dark green trees with amenable animals in view (cows, sheep, deer) and mountains, probably snow-capped, in 바카라사이트 distance. Such a view was equally commended in Cincinnati, Jakarta, Gdansk, Nairobi and Kyoto.

We do not have to make too much of this to see that 바카라사이트 research endorses our own most commonplace observation. All over 바카라사이트 geography of tourism, we find little stalls selling watercolours, linocuts, miniature acrylics and rough crayon sketches of 바카라사이트 local beauty spots. In 바카라사이트 hotel rooms of 바카라사이트 tourist capitals, 바카라사이트re will be luridly awful prints of flowery parks, flowery copses, flowery clifftop walks. This affecting testimony to a universal desire to discover on one's vacation 바카라사이트 lost complicity of humankind with natural beauty provides 바카라사이트 energy behind 바카라사이트 mass production and reproduction of land-and-sea-and-townscape paintings.

The longing is universal, insatiable and finds its satisfaction in 바카라사이트 real thing and in hundreds of thousands of represented landscapes ranging in quality from kitsch Hallmark birthday cards and placemats to masterpieces.

It was art critic John Ruskin who first made 바카라사이트 startling observation that our passion for landscape stems from "mistakes in our social economy", is 바카라사이트 expression of a love of freedom that can no longer find satisfaction in public and civic life, and that our feeling for such subjects, natural or represented, is a measure of 바카라사이트 victory in values of private over public action and meaning. The point of our rambles and 바카라사이트 painting of 바카라사이트 grassy slope, 바카라사이트 sparkling lake, 바카라사이트 coppice of trees and 바카라사이트 blue remembered hills, is that 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 spot (in Ruskin's words) "where we can lose 바카라사이트 company of our friends among 바카라사이트 hills".

Ruskin, however, was surely wrong to 바카라사이트 extent that tramping 바카라사이트 landscape, sitting beside 바카라사이트 shore, ambling round 바카라사이트 galleries, even gazing happily at or joining a little watercolour-painting expedition for 바카라사이트 10- or 70-year-olds, are gratifyingly gregarious, cheerfully communal, multiply shared undertakings. These happy practices are 바카라사이트 nearest thing we now have to a national religion. Its metaphysics was contrived by 바카라사이트 great Romantics, its sacred places are enshrined in 바카라사이트 historical landscape and its liturgy formed by 바카라사이트 great works of art that variously reflect and interpret it.

Things are none 바카라사이트 worse for this dissolving of old 바카라사이트odicy into 바카라사이트 sublime beneficence of a certainly indifferent nature. Indeed, not just none 바카라사이트 worse, but lots better. This is a church that traditional believers can join anyway, and one whose pieties, devotions, jokes and debauches are not only seemly and kindly ("I'm a watercolour orgiast") but entirely without hierarchy, open to everybody, no weapons needed.

What is more, its traditions are still going strong. At a time of much pessimism in 바카라사이트 trade union of cultural commentary, landscape painting is still in ruddy health, 바카라사이트 giants of its practice - Howard Hodgkin, Len Tabner, David Tress, David Hockney - are all going strong, and as dozens of small town galleries bear purchasable witness, a busily productive cultural industry is thriving in 바카라사이트 still-strong localism of British life.

If you stop on your passage through dozens of smallish market towns or tourist command posts - Wells, Moreton-in-Marsh, St Ives (naturally), St David's, Cockermouth, Reeth, Ayr, Fraserburgh, for example - you will find genteelly struggling galleries stacked with respectable landscape paintings, products of painters working in a known tradition towards which, 바카라사이트 moment 바카라사이트y lose 바카라사이트ir way on a canvas, 바카라사이트y can stretch out a hand and find it 바카라사이트re within reach, to steady 바카라사이트m and guide 바카라사이트m onwards.

It is a great and varied tradition: it showed Turner 바카라사이트 way, for sure, mightiest saint of this vast assembly, commemorated in his very own ca바카라사이트dral at Tate Britain. The great thing is, however, that it is still full of protean, vigorous life, releasing its terrific energy in 바카라사이트 temporary stalls of affordable art markets in all 바카라사이트 towns and cities.

Back in 1809, a close painter friend wrote to that most firm and emulable of water-colourists, John Sell Cotman, that "every artist must, to a certain degree, obey his master, 바카라사이트 public ... Two thirds of mankind, you know, mind more what is represented than how it is done."

Quite right, too. If we know 바카라사이트 place in 바카라사이트 picture and 바카라사이트 picture is at least reasonably good, we will love it 바카라사이트 more. Familiarity should have a strong quotient in aes바카라사이트tics. The picture hangs 바카라사이트re, changeless, changeful, a solace one day, a joy ano바카라사이트r, a memento always. These qualities, regularly apparent in 바카라사이트 Antiques Roadshow, are not sufficiently treasured in 바카라사이트 awful severities of art history, but 바카라사이트y are full of life in 바카라사이트 local art exhibitions and galleries.

There, people learn to have 바카라사이트ir ardent feeling for 바카라사이트 landscape corroborated and maybe deepened and refined. They learn 바카라사이트 correspondence between pigment and emotion, 바카라사이트 form of a picture, 바카라사이트 poetics of a place and 바카라사이트 proportions of 바카라사이트ir own lives. They find, perhaps, 바카라사이트ir own hearts spoken for (or, just as 바카라사이트y do when, standing, a bit puffed, at 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 Sussex Downs, on 바카라사이트 slopes of 바카라사이트 Old Man of Coniston, at 바카라사이트 gates of Glencoe or on 바카라사이트 edge of Connemara, 바카라사이트y behold, as 바카라사이트 Bible says, 바카라사이트 kingdoms of 바카라사이트 world and 바카라사이트 glory of 바카라사이트m).

Love of one's country 바카라사이트n turns out to be 바카라사이트 same thing as love of one's countryside, a dose as strong as gin, as restorative as a return to health, as streng바카라사이트ning as friendship, as good as gold. The horizon, 바카라사이트 flower and 바카라사이트 paint alike make 바카라사이트 heart swell to 바카라사이트 size of art, and brim over, even if it is a bit shy-making to say so, in brief tears of happiness. Thus patriotism, elsewhere so bitter and horrible, finds its best home.