Ch-ch-ch-ch Changes!
France is foggy. Fog makes me all meloncholy in a Carl Jung + Heidegger kind of way. This could easily turn into a post about the changing weather in this part of France or the not so subtle shift from late summer to fall, or the lurking fog that hugs the ground every morning and makes me feel like I'm still dreaming as I drive my Favorite French boy to the train station. But even I'm bored of my moodiness, so let's just get down to business shall we?
Since I've been neglecting my blog so horribly over the past few months I thought the least I could do would be to post some new works in process. In May I set myself up with a summer project to finish 10 large scale paintings. It's nearly October and I've only finished four. (Make that four and a half.) Taking up easel painting after an almost 6 year hiatus has proven to be a real challenge. I've learned a few new painting tricks, but I learned even more about my own working process. I'm impatient, easily agitated, indecisive, and obsessive.....on canvas anyway. Paintings always come to the point of resolving themselves and then somehow completely disintegrate before my very eyes only to end up leaning against the wall in my livingroom for a week before I can bare to look at them again.
So far I've produced two paintings that I enjoy looking at, and two others that I find troubling but "interesting". And then of course there are those canvases that just surprise me by transforming and moving in directions I hadn't quite intended.
For example: this painting which I had posted as being finished...
Since I've been neglecting my blog so horribly over the past few months I thought the least I could do would be to post some new works in process. In May I set myself up with a summer project to finish 10 large scale paintings. It's nearly October and I've only finished four. (Make that four and a half.) Taking up easel painting after an almost 6 year hiatus has proven to be a real challenge. I've learned a few new painting tricks, but I learned even more about my own working process. I'm impatient, easily agitated, indecisive, and obsessive.....on canvas anyway. Paintings always come to the point of resolving themselves and then somehow completely disintegrate before my very eyes only to end up leaning against the wall in my livingroom for a week before I can bare to look at them again.
So far I've produced two paintings that I enjoy looking at, and two others that I find troubling but "interesting". And then of course there are those canvases that just surprise me by transforming and moving in directions I hadn't quite intended.
For example: this painting which I had posted as being finished...
...has turned into this painting.
I guess it wasn't done after all. Resolution, resolution, always seeking resolution, perhaps where there is none. This little summer painting project has become my own private metaphor for life. (insert dramatic rolling of eyes and deeply pathetic sigh here)
No doubt more grand changes are on the way. I have two other canvases that I'm working on at the moment. My goal is to finish them by next week before we leave for TOKYO! Cross your fingers for me. I'll need all the help I can get. Also cross your fingers that I'll find a comfortable pair of walking shoes this weekend. I 'm a bit desperate.
And in closing, a few appropriate quotes about painting:
Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.— Edgar Degas
If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.— Edward Hopper
A painting is never finished. It simply stops in an interesting place.— Paul Gardener
I should have gone to lawschool. - Me
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