Yesterday I was so frustrated with the bigger pastel on which I was working that I went outside and wiped the entire thing down. As I stood there looking at the after image and I saw a possibility. Up to the studio we went and a brand new landscape evolved completely unplanned. Now I am not going to profess this to be a finished painting, but it was a lesson.
1. listen to the painting, don't force my agenda
2. I prefer to paint distance... not to close. I was painting a landscape that was too close for my liking. I felt SQUEEZED.
Think about your lessons. The painting will always teach you.
14 comments:
I really love this--it caught my eye in the thumbnail from someone else's blog! (I "left" them to run over here to see it).. I guess we can be glad your first painting resisted you...! This is a gem.
Wow Celeste thanks!
I really like the sky Loriann. There is something about it, which, unfortunaltely, find it very hard to describe in English.Very striking.
The lesson I learned in the past few month: don't press for the finished painting. Give yourself the freedom to explore and let go. And miraculously some wonderful things happen...
Hi Astrid and thank you! The sky was all accidental...the only credit I can take is knowing when to stop.
You are so right about not pressing for the finished painting. They can't be so precious either.
listen to the painting, don't force the agenda.
i'm going to take those words and stick them all over my studio and on my forehead. you describe situations so easily. so clear, so simple. oh yeah, listen to b, always listen to b.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
knowing when to stop ... now there's a book title.
when's it coming out b?
This is very interesting and totally different for you. it would have been interesting if you had copied the one before you wiped it down to compare where you were going. course if you're like me you may not want anyone to see where you were going.
Loriann, I have had nice results after washing or scrubbing the painting away, and starting again. I didn't use lemonade. The remnants can be very useful as you discovered. A vacuum cleaner also works. Keep on scrubbing.
Ah, there are no mistakes, now are there? This is really excellent with your treatment of the sky. Simple, yet active on so many levels.
I like your art rules.
Powerful. I do love your mid- to dark-value paintings!
Hey PB
Yup, you are right, totally different and not what I intended....I could tell you stories! As I was wiping off the pastel I noticed a landscape and I had to turn the painting to see it..sideways. Far from what I had intended. Wish I had taken a picture...but you know how it is when you are so frustrated! (see, I get frustrated too)
Not forcing our agenda can be the hardest thing to do because it counters our need to have a vision/plan.
b
PS Let me know when you find that book on Amazon.
Hi Bob
I had used fixative so the scrubbing had to be rigorous. (no real lemonade) This BFK can not use liquid in any way. It's more fragile than Uart or Wallis which I can use and reuse. I like its softness.
Hi Melinda!
No mistakes, just lots of lessons ready to be learned.I will have to go check you Grand Canyon.
Hi Jala!
What do you think? Darker paintings tend to have a mood very different than lighter ones. Power from value?
Wow! I love the way this painting turned out! I guess it was hiding under the first one all along. Interesting what you said about distance. Do you feel too compelled to add detail when the view is close up? (I do.) I sure hope those antibiotics are working their magic on you!!!
Stunning sky in this one, Loriann, and I do like your dark-keyed paintings (and the light ones, too). The papers I use don't always hold up well to much scrubbing, and definitely not with liquid. I do sometimes scrape away pastel gentlY with a painting knife, though, to give myself a fresh start and this sometimes leads to better things.
Once, in a fit of pique (who, me?), I bashed at a "finished-to-perfection" pastel with a crappy old 1-inch brush and then threw it out. Boy, was that a dumb mistake or what? We'll never know. Perfection is such a bitch!
Hi Donna,, Detail can always be an issue.. but for me I actually feel claustrophobic when I am too close. Funny, do you know what I mean? And thanks the anitbiotics are working well.
Hi Brian, I know what you mean BFK could never take liquid.. I actually have used erasers when I want it there but different. I never thought of actually scraping it with a painting knife. thanks!
Yipes Sam! I guess that's a lesson of a sort... is that in letting go? or waitiing and not being impulsive?
perfection isn't what it's cracked up to be!
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