Yesterday was a good one. I want to go faster, do more paintings, not get stuck on a month long slog in one work, as "Pulling Onions" has been. However, the knowledge I am acquiring through this slog is the base I require to go forward with confidence. Yesterday both the painting and the drawing went well. The one and only drawing is indeed another study for "Pulling Onions." Obviously my "studies" do not necessarily resemble the painting for which they are research. In the drawing I was most interested in the feel of the legs and feet, because that's where I ran into confusion with "Pulling Onions."
In the drawing, take a close look at the man's right hand (on viewer's left). I had completed the drawing, put it up on my wall for introspection, and saw that this hand was grossly oversized. I took an electric eraser to it (you can see the graphite pentimento). I very much like the redrawn hand, which shows the effort was worth it. This was definitely a case of one step backward followed by two forward. I knew something was wrong. Yesterday's first drawing made the error clear. The man's right leg (on the viewer's left) is anatomically incorrect. This drawing is actually a study for the painting "Pulling Onions." The standing man's right foot, and right leg, has bothered me; I have repainted it multiple times. So I drew a standing man, working particularly with the feet and legs. It took the completion of this drawing, with the incorrect leg, to make me understand the reason for my discomfort. Now I see it! The thigh must dominate as it is enters the knee, not as I depicted it, where the calf muscle dominates. This information is mundane, annoying, interesting, and will not change the painting, or the drawing, from good to excellent. I obviously find it important, so I will correct the standing man's right leg in "Pulling Onions."
I have no complaint with yesterday's second drawing. In this drawing I got the standing man's feet and legs correct! Today's tale is one which speaks to the need to trust one's intuitive knowledge. My intellect could not identify the reason for the anatomical problem in "Pulling Onions." I listened to my intuition. I worked till my intellectual knowledge caught up with my intuitive knowledge. The pay off is more important than acquisition of simple, describable anatomical knowledge. This activity was practice in proper behavior toward finding success. In yesterday's post I mentioned that I had awoken very early on Monday 08/15/2011 with an idea for a new painting. At 3 a.m. I made a quick sketch. I show it here: I do not envision the new painting to have the composition shown in this sketch. It will be a narrower, steeper composition. Also, the idea I see in my head is looser than the tightness illustrated in this sketch. My verbal depiction of my vision does not do it justice. The reality of the actual painting will clarify it to you and to me.
Yesterday was a tired day, where my exhaustion made me feel incompetent, especially in the the second drawing, which I struggled to complete. In the first drawing I like the insect, or weird bird. It is a prelude to the flying animal which will appear in my new painting. I think it is an insect because of its six legs. I awoke at 3 AM this morning...worries of oblivion. I needed to draw an image which had popped into my head; a dream? Recent drawings show a man balancing on a rock. This morning's drawing illustrated a man on a rock, with a terrible, large flying insect, behind him; an insect reminiscent of the one in drawing #3 of 07/22/2011. I made this morning's drawing on 8.5 X 11 inch white printer paper, and then tried to go back to sleep. I lay there for an hour, and then got up. Here I am. Right now I am making great strides in my art. There is importance in the quick sketch I made so early this morning. I worry most about the end of my research when I capture an insight of true meaning. Things are going well.
The painting "Pulling Onions" is moving toward completion. I feel mastery in my ability to solve its problems. This does not mean my work comes easily, but that I am able to hang in there until the solution feels correct. Mastery is not about ability which allows quick, facile solutions, rather it is disciplined acuity. I have educated myself to recognize discomfort. Mastery is the belief one can find a proper solution, and it is the strength to work until an appropriate solution is found. This is happening in "Pulling Onions." Yesterday's two drawing are also insightful and instructive. Making art, working at it day after day, does not make it easier to do. Yesterday I spent hours struggling with the head of the figure on the right in "Pulling Onions." At the end of my energy, at the end of my day, I finally became comfortable with it. Today I will work on the rest of "Pulling Onions," moving it toward conclusion.
It was good day. There was enough time for me to construct the knowledge necessary to finish "Pulling Onions." I continue to get tugged by outside, worldly distractions, but yesterday they seemed less important. Overall the rhythm of the world is such that most concerns receded; they did not disturb my studio time. I actually turned off the radio, and simply painted. "Pulling Onions" is looking good. Other ideas are surfacing, including my returning to the painting "Two Men" (driving it to its final conclusion), and beginning a new painting (which has been forming in quick, sketch book, scrawls).
Yesterday's drawing is interesting: triangles for noses! There are weeks when the world's turmoil affects my art-making. It makes me nervous, distracting me from consistent work in the studio. This last week was such a week. I don't like it. It diverts me from reality. My reality, surrounding my local existence, is good. The stuff affecting the rest of the world has has had little affect on my local environment: no heat wave, no large change in background radioactivity, food gets on the table, our young men from Lyme have not gone to war, and I sleep well. Still, it worries me much. Like anyone paying attention, I see black clouds on the horizon. Yesterday I was able to paint. "Pulling Onions" took a nice step toward solution. "Pulling Onions" may be an allegory related to my worries. Yesterday's drawings illustrates me listening to the news on the radio while drawing at the same time. The second drawing continues the theme of balancing in a precarious world. I think this idea may lead to my next painting.
My way back to painting has not been unswerving. Yesterday I took a few steps in the right direction, but I did not get there. Honesty be told, the world news is getting to me. I got distracted by worries about everything from the London riots to the turmoil in the World financial markets. This is an Art Blog, so I will not spend time discussing my concerns, except to say I discern a major shift in our world culture, one where the divide, and the relationship, between the wealthy and the common man will be readjusted. This is affecting my art.
Yesterday's drawings reveal my interest in both composition and allegory. The best composed of the three is #1, with its insistent diagonals and its play of values. Allegorically, #3 is the most interesting. It speaks to the drama taking place in our world right now: a naked man balances on a useless rock while a clothed man observes the balancing act. The clothed man encourages the difficult balance, while drinking coffee. I have not posted in a few days; I have been swept away by friends, family, and Lyme, New Hampshire's 250th Anniversary Celebration. All good. Now I'm back. I feel fully loaded. In terms of my art-making, the time away from the studio has charged me up, and I have returned with great gusto. Today I will go back into the painting "Pulling Onions," and also will prepare another canvas. I am beginning to wrest ideas from my previous life as an abstract, non-figurative, painter. Early in my career I painted three-dimensional forms, and often placed them in a landscape-like settings with a floor which feels like the ground of the earth. To animate the forms in these abstractions I sometimes twisted the ground, and the forms, so the viewer entered a tilted world. Yesterday's second drawing plays with this idea.
I am in the middle of a major acquisition. I mean knowledge, not something material. Dick Schellens was in my studio last night and said "Pulling Onions" is "grayer" in person than it is in reproduction on the web. Once again, he was right. Dick's eyes are impeccable. I have complained about the difference between my "actual" work and my "reproduced" work. Usually reproduction has negative consequences. For "Pulling Onions" it seems the opposite. There is much success in "Pulling Onions." I am happy with how its forms and composition are developing, but as I finish this painting I need to go in and brighten it up. In person it does not have the contrast which is exhibited in reproduction, prepared as it is with "Photoshop."
My drawings continue to intensely explore composition. Every inch of the page is marked; forms are being created with a sense of the whole, as well as the particular. |
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May 2024
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