the art of making poetry

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Uart

 What is essential to making poetry in a painting? Does the description of the place really matter?  What is it that makes a painting draw you in and stay in?  To me, I may not know what it is but I know what it isn't... Details.  Details are my nemesis. Put it along side persnickity work habits. They carry me in unintended directions. Details are like the letters that make up the words.....but it is the words that make the poetry.  You can arrange the words of a poem just like we arrange the shapes, color, edges and value. Arrange and orchestrate, but details just seem to derail.


Last Wednesday I woke up early knowing we would once again be blanketed with fog. On location the fog was thick. As I worked on the painting I realized it wasn't coming together. I was getting derailed. So I turned my back on the scene and only thought of the poetry of what I saw and the color harmony necessary to make the illusion. Another huge painting will grow from this.


BTW The studio progress continues.  The cement foundation is hard and 2x6 beams are going up as I write.  And Sam, as per your suggestion I scratched my initials and the date into the new surface.

fog and orchestration

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Early mornings in September are wonderful times for plein air painting. The air is calm and cool and the earth is still warm from months of sunshine. Then the magic happens. As the temperature of the ground decreases, it cools the air above it to the dew point (the point at which water vapor condenses into droplets of liquid water), forming a cloud of water droplets known as radiation.  The ground is covered in thick dew.   It's actually difficult to stay in bed knowing the weather conditions are right and the beautiful fog is there to greet me at the river.

This particular time the fog was light and ready to break. Not long into the start of the painting  I could see the sun at the edge of the trees. Correct values are once again the most important thing when painting and that includes painting fog when the values are all so close. In this scene the fog was in the distance and the grass where I stood was simply soaked with dew.

As with any painting it is important to select your dominant color and orchestrate your color. The sky is where I look to find my dominant color. The beautiful melon sky can be made more lovely by the colors placed in the adjacent land and the moving from warm to cool in the actual sky.

I have begun a new BIG painting that will be based on the plein air piece (at the top of the page.) Here is the underpainting...which I did in pastel and Liquin!

24x48 underpainting

On an entirely different and very exciting note....the groundbreaking for my new studio began on Thursday. Here is a picture of the way it looks now. By Tuesday it will have footings and a concrete slab. Yay! This is my life-long dream and I still can't believe it is really happening! I will tell you more as it develops.

freedom

10x10 oil on wood

48x42 oil on wood

10x10 oil on wood

6x6 oil on wood

Recently I read the biography of R.A. Blakelock called, The Unknown Night. I thought it was written better than most biographies and it held my interest. You probably wonder why  I mention this book. I will get to that. Blakelock painting career lasted through the Hudson River School period,  the Luminist period, onto the Tonalist and even  till the time of the Ashcan School, quite a progression of art. He is best know for his moonlit landscapes and his struggle with schizophrenia.
What struck me most was his freedom. He, like George Inness, did whatever it took to create the feeling/image in his head. He scratched, scored, and wiped. He varnished between layers (like Maxwell Parrish) and even used a silver underpainting. He is a restorer's nightmare and that is why you often can't see his paintings listed in a museum's inventory.

Blakelock, Landscape at  Moonlight (oil)

 Still you wonder why I mention this. Freedom. For some crazy reason Blakelock has set my mind free. Therefore as long as it is archivally sound I will try it. You can see some of my recent explorations. Textured gesso, pastel underneath with liquin on top, pastel on top of oil, scratching, and rubbed in color are a few methods I am trying now. I am trying to find a way to create the vibration I desire...that Rothko like vibration, but from my heart.

Stop any persnickity behavior. Embrace the process.

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

6x6 oil inspired from small pastel

7x3 pastel from memory

I continue my small works on twilight. (These are the baby "models" for my large works.) The idea of creating the glow color of a luscious sky can mean creating a darker balance in the land. Knowing this, I still try to do it in other ways, with little success. The contrast of sharp and unfocused edges make a little more mystery and strengthen the diva. Practice, practice.  I find that I need to do the "same"painting over and over varying the underpaintings  and the layers as I search for my idea to clarify before going bigger.

It's funny, last week a visitor to my studio was remarking about one of my paintings. She said,"Wow, what a beautiful place that is! It must be nice to paint there." I decided not to tell her that the view was next to a dumpster in the mall parking lot. We are the creators of illusions, ideas, and beauty. I instead replied, "Yes it is beautiful with the morning light. I love being in that place" While my statement may sound false..... it's not at all. I do love being in that place, even if most of it takes place in my head.

This brings about another great quote.
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Degas

And last but not least, thank you to all my new (and old) subscribers and followers. When checking my stats this evening I was astonished and delighted! Thanks for taking the time to stop by, look and read!!!