Kizmet

How does it happen?...

The pear picture took me two days of work - maybe four hours. The Braeburn apple - twenty minutes. Where do these things come from? I have been slaving away all summer to nail that loose, effortless aesthetic of the apple painting. And lo and behold, there is no slaving involved in the execution. It is indeed effortless. Of course, I realize that all these images build upon one another and I wouldn't be here without that whole summer of painting. Blah dee blah dee blah...It's like being told to eat your vegetables because they're good for you. In this case, however, the reward is more gratifying.

I finally got some good images of my paintings not the deep dark murky pictures that I continually post. The image of the pear painting hasn't been photoshopped at all! I am forever fooled by the illuminated screen of my digital camera, thinking the picture is correctly exposed. Now I am on the path of overexposure.

Both pieces are 4" x 3" or 3" x 4", as it were.

Practice Scales

Here is the painting I began a while back. You haven't seen it before perse, but I have mentioned it. This is my first venture on a wood panel with oil paints. It is a poplar board and I built a cradle for it (a wooden backing to prevent the panel from warping). I then gessoed the surface to protect it from the oils and sized the gesso to prevent it from overabsorbing the paint. Then I got completely frustrated. The sizing didn't resist the oil paints the way a canvas can and my paint was drying upon application.

After building up the layers and beginning to use linseed oil in my paints, I am back to the normal absorbtion and drying rate of oil paints. And I am very pleased by the smooth surface the panel affords me. Painting tiny detail is much easier on a flat board than a knobbly canvas. So I am finding I am able to paint teeny tiny objects in this composition. I am also getting some nice passages - well one so far. It is the detail I provided. I think the paint application became very nice and wet - soupy. The paint has a sense of flow, accident, or life to it.

I don't have many thoughts on this piece as to what it is about. I suppose I am not really trying to do something like that with this work. It's perhaps just a simple exercise again in still life. So that I can have a place to rest while I am in the studio. This painting is practice - like scales would be to a musician.

The Annunciation

In the hopes of illiciting some opinions I am posting photos of The Annunciation, again. The colors have become more vibrant as the painting continues to be worked. I am wondering now if maybe I have collapsed the space because the hues in the background are too saturated or the surfaces aren't modelled enough on the rear cabinets, refrigerator, and stove. I added some red tulips to the foreground, a new and last minute addition that is still in progress. The purplish flowers are myrtle, but I am not happy with how they are turning out. I am working primarily with illustration in this painting - using images based on what they symbolize, constructing a scene in my head and executing it on the canvas rather than merely observing light and form. This is something that I never thought I could do; but I am happy with the results in this piece.