Not Abandonment Yet

Having a photo reference around just doesn't work for me, I get too tied to it and can't play or invent in the studio. My plan is to start several pieces at one time and add some collage elements. I am determined to play again, the dialogue with the work seems only to be open if I play.

Abandonment

I have given over fully to the controlled, detailed side and have seen the light. Abandonment shows confidence. Power lies in being able to loose it all at any moment and go for it. Not being put off when one doesn't succeed but have total faith in the next.

Now Showing

Paintings now showing at the Vam York Community Theater during the
run of the play, Blithe Spirit. Opening Night, January 25th through February 10th.
I am going to go hang out during the play on the 25th, hope to see you there.

Self Portrait

I can't believe I just did this painting. It seems I am working farther away from what I want to do with each study. I don't want to do portraits from photo references.
I don't think people that came into the gallery this weekend liked my new still life either. I think one of the problems is that it is an acrylic and I used the paint straight from the bottle. We have a lot of gorgeous oils in the gallery and this plastic paint just doesn't cut it unless I really watch the way I use it.

I can't believe that I keep forgetting all the lessons that I have learned and revert back to my old bad habits each time I try something new. So I wrote myself a list of do's and don'ts to hang on my easel.
Don'ts
Make outlines and fill in.
Make solid shapes and then break them apart, all space, no form.
Use acrylic paint straight from the tube of bottle.
Paint from a photo or become too tight too soon.
Do's
Use a sketch as a map not a template.
Paint a feeling or an idea.
Have Fun, paint it, fun in the process.
Use heavy modeling media or lots of fluid media, wet into wet or thick and sculpt it.
Let forms emerge, create shapes as I paint, wet drip, thick swash, scratch in a line, all through out the process.
Like life drawing: wouldn't fill in the outline of a figure then shade it in, emerges from light, heavy, thick and thin marks. Casual.

Back to the Still Life

I finally got to get back to my painting since the holidays are over and my sons are back to school. I feel like I have been holding my breath for a month and was nearly drowning by yesterday but now I can exhale. I am still excited about pattern, line and shape. I wanted this last still life to look like the objects were lost in a sea of pattern. I am anxious to try a human figure immersed in natural pattern this way. I have worked with this idea before but this will be a new approach. My graduate advisor was always saying that to the modernists the surrounding space was as important as the subject. For some reason, I interpreted that in my work as the space going through the subject and breaking it apart. But now when I look at some of Picasso's work around the time of The Girl in the Mirror, I finally get what she meant. Picasso outlines each section of negative space just as he does the subject shapes. They are all just as brightly colored and patterned. This makes for beautiful full compositions too. This painting is more Klimt inspired than Picasso. I will focus more on the negative spaces in the next painting.