10:52 AM: we took our trail walk this morning, and here are a few pics. delightful and fulfilling as always. mosquitoes not swarming yet....it helped that it was 39F when we started out at 6:15am.
i won't be working in the studio today. i've got an appointment with my dermatologist to get the blue light treatment, and will have to be completely out of the sun for 3-4 days.
1:54 PM: after looking at it in the house over the past 24 hours, i felt that it needed a few more critical tweaks before i could sign it & declare it a resolved painting. the main one oyu may notice is the horizonal triangular shadow on the lower right. it allows the eye to comprehend the space more easily. previously, as you will see if you compare yesterday's version with today's, there was some spatial; confusion and the entire image seemed like it could just slip off the bottom of the page. i also darkened a few areas, such as the hair of the main central standing figure of the barber. the white space above the draped material at the top has a few defining shadows that give it volume, and there are a few more.
gouache interior 5 14x14" gouache on archival watercolor paper.
2:25 PM: even though we took our morning trail walk, we returned early enough for me to get to work around 10. so i got a lot done, and may have completed gouache interior 5. although the photo collage i worked from was shot 30 years ago in rajistan, i can recall all the elements very clearly. the barber & his crew were thrilled at being the subjects of my photos. his seemingly makeshift shop was actually very well equipped, and contained many of the elements i love in an interior: numerous mirrors, beautiful patterned colors, figures who, in spite of the fact that they're very aware of being the subjects of photographs, are all relaxed and natural in their bodies. in that respect, they reminded me of the passengers i drew and painted on the ferry to and from andros. without the 2 figures on the right, who were able to sneak in because of my collaging, the image would lose immeasurably.
4 PM: i started painting, but just barely. tomorrow morning we plan on walking early, around 5:30 to avoid the mosquitoes, which are just now starting to show up & will be around for about 6 weeks. so i should be able to get to work by 10 am & have a full day.i love this early stage, where the surface begins coming to life.
2:23 PM: the drawing for gouache interior 5 is complete, so i'm going to prepare my colors & start painting. pics as they become available.
12:11 PM: i'm at work on the drawing for the next gouache interior 5. this one is inspired by a photo collage i shot in rajistan, india in the '90's. it's a colorful half indoor half outdoor barber shop.
rajistan is known for it's bright colors, as you will see when i began painting this one.
looking back: this is a plein air oil on linen, 16x16" painted on august 8, 2011.
it's a great example of how realism can evolve to abstraction. quite handsome in person.
3:08 PM: i don't have any more of these frames, so i switched out gouache interior 3 for the new one. that way i can bring it to the house and make a final evaluation as to whether or not it's resolved. quite a shift from my gaze series! as you may recall, those paintings went back & forth form house to studio many times and underwent radical alterations before being declared resolved. and even the, later, sometimes months later, they would once again transform, sometimes rendering them unrecognizable.
1:14 PM: after a few final tweaks, i just now completed gouache interior 4. mikela rightly pointed out that it was leaning a bit to far towards the beiges, so i introduced a few subtle but critical blues that made all the difference. so now, she sings! as time goes on, my marks become more economical, so that what might seem to the onlooker to be very minor adjustments can critically shift the energy of the whole.
3 PM: i did a lot today, and knocked myself out! i'll resume tomorrow morning, and may even complete this one.
this interior, as i said earlier, excites me tremendously, and i can't wait to get back to work tomorrow. i'm savoring the prospect of making this one, as well as the other 3 in the series, larger paintings in oil. the next gouache may move on to other interiors i've made photo collages of.... a few i'm considering were shot in paris apartments and restaurants in the loire valley.
12:36: a few minutes ago i completed the 14x14" drawing for gouache interior 4 & am now ready to squeeze my colors & begin painting.
there are many elements in this one that turn me on, not the least of which is the richness of the painting over the fireplace. as i studied my photo collage, shot in the mid '90's, i experienced a deeper and deeper appreciation for our friend loekie, who considered every detail in this room as if she were anticipating that it might become the subject of a painting. every fabric; every placement of tables, chairs, teapot, shells is exquisitely thought out (or, more accurately, felt) before making her arrangement. i'm certain this room looks different today than it did then, and am equally certain it is just as exquisite!
4:20 PM: i just now started the drawing for gouache interior 4, which is also 14x14" and draws once again form gary & loekie's maarssen, netherlands home photo collages i shot in the '90's.
gouache interior 3 14x14" 35.5x35.5 cm.
2:03 PM: i just now completed my final tweaks to gouache interior 3. selective lights & darks make the image pop more as well as improving the compositional balance. as with all my paintings in either gouache, egg tempera or watercolor mediums, everything rests upon subtle variances of tone & compositional angles that allow the eye to move over the picture surface freely, stopping perhaps to savor an especially successful brush stroke or passage. a daring departure for me, in these paintings, may be the occasional crimson red or azure blue. this modulation of mostly earth tones can be traced directly back to my days with the great tsarouchis and, by extension, his teacher kondoglou, who translated the byzantine idiom into contemporary terms. as i come full circle in my curiously wandering trajectory as an artist, i feel able to savor the simple beauty of this interior in the netherlands and, in the end, see it through my own eyes; my own consciousness.
BELOW: 3 stages in the development of gouache interior 3
2:41 PM: stopping here for the day. this painting now sings, always a good thing. but it may still need a few tweaks tomorrow when i'm fresh. i did lots of work on the figure (our friend karen), the stairs and the cabinet in the center with it's beautiful objects, all chosen by loekie, with her sensitive eye for detail, color, pattern & all the stuff painters love. boy did they do the right thing when they purchased this house in the '60's and renovated it. it's my favorite interior amongst the manmy i've photographed & painted, and bonnard/vuillard would have agreed were they still with us.
2:10 PM: i'm continuing work on gouache interior 3, which looks like this at 2:10pm. i'll be painting for about another hour today, & will post pics of the latest version before leaving my studio.
2PM: stopping here for the day, as the skies darken and the thunderstorms begin.
12:44 PM: gouache interior 3 14x14" about half hour ago. still painting....
9:55 AM: i'm about to squeeze my colors & begin painting gouache interior 3, which i made the drawing for yesterday.
this is another of my 1984-5 photo collages of hockney's L.A. home & studio
4:35 PM: i just set up a new page on this site titled gouache interiors. it can be accessed in the dropdown menu at the top of every page. new paintings will be added as they are completed. or you can click on the link below.
3:18 PM: the drawing is complete, so i'll start painting tomorrow morning. tomorrow is not a trail walk day, so i should be able to start early. the subject is a different room in same interior i used in gouache interior 2, with one of the two figures found in gouache interior 1: our friend karen.
1 pm: starting late due to a.m. trail walk. working on the drawing for gouache interior 3.
in going through my files of photo collages, i came across a group i shot in my friend david hockney's studio in about 1984-5. here's one of them....david can be seen on the far right.
i'll post more when i have time.
