I am in a bit of a quandary today. Over a painting. A painting that has had so many reincarnations I wonder if I should just let it go already?!
It was started in April of 2011, got tossed into a reject pile, came out again in late 2011 and got collaged-over, painted, and experimented on like a monkey. Got another toss into reject-to-re-DO.
I was going through a bunch of paintings a few weeks ago BEcause I am ready to give them away, to move them on if they have a Life to BE lived BEyond Here. BEyond Now.
And there this little bugger was. Screaming at me like I'd absolutely destroyed its hair on class picture day!! Calmly, with a feeling of greater calm than I had ever noticed in me BEfore, I brought it back in to work on.
I tried collage, again. I sanded it way back. I tried some rigourous de-collaging, and then I let it BE. I let it sit and tell me what it wanted.
It seemed to call for some painting. Again. But it was hideous. So it sat. Again.
Then I got the idea to try a texture on it that I'd used with another painting earlier in the summer. [I know it is October, but it is still very much "summer" here in South Florida.] I kind of clumped it on and the whole effect was pretty darn cool.
Then again it sat. What I have learned from this painting is Meditation. Pause. Wait.
For a time in my Life I painted houses. I learned to paint fast and cover well. This knowledge and skill is counter-productive when I am painting with paint rather than my usual painting with paper.
It has never played well though it HAS taught me. About value. About why it is good to let paint dry BEfore painting over it. Or near it... And that painting isn't always about covering; often it is about revealing.
So here I was, realising that I simply have to Wait-and-See where to go... I got a "vision" of an under sea World, which I have been on about Now for about 2 years, only very different, very textured and layered and the feeling of the space and time under there more than the crazy critters and brighter colours.
I even dug out one of the few books I kept after the sweep of books sent to Amazon in April. I knew it had a painting process like what I had the idea to DO here. I knew it had information I needed to marinate in to understand HOW to DO what I envisioned...
So I started out, layering, like strata, something I learned about in my workshops with Sherry O'Neill at Old School Square Now Delray Center for the Arts from 2009 to 2011.
I was patient and deliberate. I had a couple other things going on so I wouldn't stare and will the paint to dry. So I wouldn't try to BE how I have always been when painting with paint. Sherry made it look so easy, yet she always said she's had a LOT of practise. Those first thousand weren't anything too grand, or something to that effect.
Even still, I got too many colours and mixed up more mud than colour. I have a long way to go on this learning curve, but this time I am NOT going to give up and tell myself that I suck. BEcause I may indeed suck but as a painter?!
I'm still a work-in-progress...
So here's where it stands Now...
[And I realise the colour isn't "all that" so it may look "better" photographed than In Real Life. But work with me here. I'm "getting my art on" and this is something I've never done on this blog.]
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Only cropped in Picasa cropped and slightly digitally fiddled with in Picasa  and REALLY digitally fiddled with in Picasa and Picnik |
What I notice straightaway is that I am able to DO with digital fiddling the sorts of things I find so baffling with paint and brush. MayBE this is just one of those thousand+ learning curve paintings for me...
I am very much open to any thoughts anyone might have about this process. Sometimes I really miss that workshop and this has been a good way to recreate a bit of it for myself. Sharing my work-in-progress.
The painting that won't go gentle into the good night...
10 comments:
Delicious compositions with exquisite tones, I like those textures. A greeting.
Thanks for sharing all your thoughts and your in progress work. I have many canvasses hoping for better from me. One day. lol
Stay inspired!
Currie, your painting looks very interesting. Love the colours and the textures you've achieved.
The textures and colours are just wonderful. Picasa & Picnic have made them so vibrant.
What a good idea Currie - to photograph your work at different stages and then digitially transform each one! Imagine what you might come up with? A combination of all the stages?? In paint? Digital? Both (scanning and printing?) I look forward to seeing what happens here:)
I like the colors and love the texture! Don't know enough about painting to suggest anything. I like it right now, as it is, though. :)
my own work is constantly teaching me that it's all about the journey and not the destination. this painting has certainly taken you on the scenic route~!
i love the textures and the digital play could go on forever and give you many "side trips". maybe you have created a layer for one of your photographs to melt into . . .
whatever happens with or to the art itself you are finding yourself more open to any and all possibilites and that is a good thing.
:-)
libbyQ
Ooh...love it..so totally mesmerizing..these pieces capture such color magic..the texture is visually exciting..so beautiful my friend!!
Victoria
Funny, that's what Flora Bowley said to us in her class....that she's been painting for many years. Guess I shouldn't expect to just sit down and have my painting look like something I want to see. Therein lies the problem. I'm letting the painting sit right now knowing it will, as you say, tell me what it needs! Thanks for your wonderful introspection.
Forgot to say I think all the various edits here are very intriguing!
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