3:30 PM: well the forecast was accurate; windy as hell today. i spent the entire day making this 2nd study for my scroll series, which ill be 84 x 24” on raw linen. this study is part collage; part watercolor & part crayon & pencil on paper.
it contains elements drawn from my motion & meta-motion series, as well as my most recent sky series. i probably put more work into this small study than i used to put into my sky series paintings. the collage element just happened and was not planned. how i’m going to translate something like this to the larger, much larger paintings on raw linen, i have no idea. the collage element is very important to the unexpected switching up of shapes in this study, and will be challenging to do on such a large scale.
i have the thought that i may use acrylic gesso selectively on the raw canvas, creating the rough equivalent of a collaged piece of white paper. but i’ve never done something like that, which is a big part of the challenge that feels to me like fun.
for me, this entire period feels like a coming together of all the paths i’ve taken in my career. a distillation of my mark making; a summation of my ever present love of pattern as well as my love for the sizzling vibrancy of the creek i’ve visited so many times, and will continue to paint plein air this coming spring.
in the process of making this study, i made quite a mess, with scraps of paper, inks, colored pencils strewn everywhere in my recently neatened up studio. i’ll get it cleaned up tomorrow. right now i just want to go back to the house & lie down.