paddlers on bright yellow, 38x44” oil & collage on portrait linen
1:59 PM: i took paddlers on bright yellow to the next stage, being careful not to overdo it. so why the wriinkles in the canvas? it’s tacked to the wall & won’t be stretched till we return from denver next week with the new aluminum & wood stretcher bars. why aluminum? i’ve had a terrible time with stretcher bars warping, so i decided on these, which won’t warp but are quite a bit more expensive. they’re holding all the sizes i need at the art supply store in denver.
so, getting back to this new painting, i like the face that i’ve painted these 2 paddlers so many times that i know every curve and twist in their bodies. this allows me the freedom to play, which is at the very heart of painting. the faint images of the mythological figures in the underpainting are also very helpful, as are the collaged bits of a magazine article, although it’s hard to explain why. all i can say at the moment is that they introduce an element of accident or chance that i’m more and more attracted to in my new work. as i’ve said many times, i hate predictability! since our very survival as a species is in serious doubt, all bets are off anyway!
so how, for example, will that piece of an 18th century portrait in one of the collaged bits interact with these two paddlers in a sea of bright yellow? who knows? but it will certainly give the new owners of this painting, when that time comes, something to contemplate.
the tricky part is always where to stop. is the “unfinished” area of the body of the paddler on the left more eloquent left as is?
tomorrow is our morning to take our trail walk, so i’ll get to the studio a bit later than today, and we’ll see how it all strikes me when i open the door and have a look.
paddlers on bright yellow, 38x44”, stage 1
11:51 AM: as a result of the annual monsoonal flow, we should get some thunderstorms this afternoon from abot 4 to 6pm. it’s clearat the moment and 78°F.
this morning i took the 38x44” canvas that i covered with bright yellow oils thursday & again yesterday, and began work on a new piece, titled paddlers in bright yellow. i’ve made a number of paintings inspired by the photos i shot a few years ago of two guys paddling near alamosa, colorado, 50 miles to our south. i took the shots from a bridge over the rio grande river.
BELOW is one of those paintings, made a year ago and currently hanging in our living room.