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A playful technique meets homage
While working with students on process-oriented abstract painting, I suddenly realized that I was combining Judith Geichman's work methods as a general idea and Mark Rothko's general impulse for making work.
At the end of the day, these are just plain fun to do. What I had not counted on was that the technique that I used in last year's painting with tape and drippings with oil (Art Center painting below) would actually evolve into what I was after when I started painting water. These process pieces become a lexicon of emotions. Color combinations and the water spray bottle really allow channeling a mood or state of mind onto the canvas. I love these new paintings!
At the end of the day, these are just plain fun to do. What I had not counted on was that the technique that I used in last year's painting with tape and drippings with oil (Art Center painting below) would actually evolve into what I was after when I started painting water. These process pieces become a lexicon of emotions. Color combinations and the water spray bottle really allow channeling a mood or state of mind onto the canvas. I love these new paintings!
Water and Architecture
This painting is the biggest step so far in taking the sense of a place and combining it with the emotions and associations of water.
This painting combines architectural forms, layers, and a combination of dripping paint and thick paint for knife work.
This is tentatively titled, The Art Center because it really captures a mood similar to what I feel when surrounded by kids creating and the architectural form is part of the concourse from a sketch that I just liked enough to combine with the underpainting.
This painting combines architectural forms, layers, and a combination of dripping paint and thick paint for knife work.
This is tentatively titled, The Art Center because it really captures a mood similar to what I feel when surrounded by kids creating and the architectural form is part of the concourse from a sketch that I just liked enough to combine with the underpainting.
Fractals and Water
I have always had an affinity for water. In creating multiple works of art that form an exploration, I find it is important to honor both the impulse to explore lots of new ideas but also to be disciplined in repetition and development of a theme. This series began as a way to take a poem about the cry of a Loon I heard on a fishing trip and make it into a visual idea. My love of my camera's macro lens and a few gigabytes of close-up photography of water got me thinking about one of my favorite obsessions, fractals. Its one thing to model things with mathematics. I wish I understood fluid dynamics better through physics but math has always been problematic for me. To understand water, I had to paint.
The process:
I started to play with the shapes and patterns of water. Color is a big deal for me as well. This painting still hasn't found itself and it has changed over the years. You should expect that some of your learning pieces may never quite come together.
Point of view is as important in art as it is in a physics equation. Starting your imagination from zero is an important trick to learn. It was really hard to find reference images for this painting. I even tried lying on the bottom of swimming pools and Lake Michigan to try to figure out what water looks like from below with the sun coming through. I ended up figuring it out by trial and error. I had to paint a number of these before I finally found a solution I was willing to live with. I like to try to keep in mind the advantages of eastern and western traditions in mind as well. I use photos and observation to fill up my image bank and sometimes will even use a projector to pull together elements. Once the painting is started or after a few studies, I like to paint from imagination. I think the vibe is enhanced when my full attention is on the canvas. The fish may or may not be anatomically correct and the surface above a bit wonky, but I feel like I finally captured the feeling I wanted.
Artist studies and homages are a great way to dig into Art History and also get inside of a painting or an artist's process. In this case I was interested in Hokusai and Hiroshige. I have spent some time with the sketches of both artists and their sensitivity with a brush or with paint is nothing short of poetic.
I chose two of my favorite waterfall scenes, one from each artist and blended them together in PhotoShop. Then I drew a few studies, tried a few styles, and even made a Roy Lichtenstein style version made of dots. I ended up painting this in an homage to the ancient tradition of sightseeing and appreciation of nature. I consider this work to be similar to a haiku.
I chose two of my favorite waterfall scenes, one from each artist and blended them together in PhotoShop. Then I drew a few studies, tried a few styles, and even made a Roy Lichtenstein style version made of dots. I ended up painting this in an homage to the ancient tradition of sightseeing and appreciation of nature. I consider this work to be similar to a haiku.