2:20 PM: today I continued my rework of shinkei. there’s more integration between the upper & lower areas of the composition, and the suggestion of a waterfall joining the two. the variety of colors in the marks on the bottom half make more sense to the eye because of a subtle application of pinks & blues in the mountains above.
a snowstorm is moving in tonight, and it will be pretty dark tomorrow. I don’t like working in artificial light, so we’ll see how that goes.
DETAIL of shinkei at the close of my painting day today
2:45 PM: i’ve been looking at shinkei for over a week, and have been unsatisfied with what I see. kale & mikela agree. these days, they are my most trusted sets of eyes.a new element has entered the picture, coming directly from the numerous drawings I make when we travel. almost all, if not all, are made using a variety of shades of colored pencils.
what I did thus far today parallels that, using instead oil pastels in crayon form.
right now i’m trying to get out the door so we can take an afternoon walk before the snow starts tonight through friday.
i’ll try to continue this post when we’re back later this afternoon.
at work on stage 1 of shinkei, november 2nd
6:33 PM: so we’re back & have had dinner. here’s what i’d add to what i posted earlier. as you know if you’ve followed this (almost) daily blog, i’ve been working on, or putzing with, this painting since november 2nd.
it has resisted all attempts at resolution; it has tugged at my sleeve, asking that i please try a new direction, rather than repeating solutions from earlier iterations; and dared me to sacrifice the successful passage on the lower third of the composition.
i had to move on to the start of a new series in order to resume work on it. and today, the first day of a new storm system moving into our state, was the day it called to me. and as you well know if you follow this blog, it could very well dissapear tomorrow.
1:37 PM: today, a cold, snowy day, il torrente entered a new phase. the under painting which, as often happens, I had intended to keep simple & delicate, has jumped into the fray. in the process, it has taken on some of the qualities of my earlier, creek inspired motion series, as well as things I discovered in my sound of a flute taiga inspired series, as well as images reflecting the photomicrography experiments I did during our october trail walks.
at the moment, the space seems crowded, with all the above qualities vying for attention, and none winning out. in part, this is due to the fact that i’m trying out a new quality of primed linen. it’s described by the manufacturer as an “all purpose” surface, and is very different than the very finely textured artfix portrait linen i’m used to using.
two sound of a flute paintings accidentally juxtaposed
2:41: after writing the above post, I rubbed out the painting I did this morning with mineral spirits (gamsol) and painted over the entire canvas with a tannish oil color. it’s thinly enough painted so that some of the original painting peeks through. as I photographed il torrente lying on two wooden supports, my eye caught the very tops of these two sound of a flute series paintings. they are overlapping each other & look like one composition, which is giving me some ideas for the future.however much I think i’m inventing new compositions & juxtapositions of shapes, there’s nothing quite like this: the unintended juxtaposition of two different paintings, to jog me into new possibilities.
BELOW: il torrente as it looked about 1:30pm and, on the right, after rubbing it out & painting over it. we’ll see where it goes tomorrow.
1:19 PM: as soon as I complete this post, mikela & I will walk up the trail & see what the conditions are like after the recent snowfall.
last night we had a wonderful time with our dinner guests.as I was giving them a quick overview of what i’m up to in my paintings, I pointed over at il torrente & explained that it’s actually a work in progress, and that my idea is to use what they were looking at as the first layer in a creek inspired painting, which would get a bit more specific in the second layer. actually, I wasn’t yet sure that’s what i’d be doing, but in talking about it, I got re-inspired to take the painting back over to my studio this morning & resume work, beginning to add a new, more rocks & water specific layer. we’ll see where it goes tomorrow, but i’m definitely into it now, in part due to a dinner conversation.
when my mentee, k. was here yesterday, he was struggling to find the right orange for his sky. and today I unexpectedly had a similar experience, searching for the right orange, which you see happening here on todays palette.
il torrente yesterday just after removing blue/pink border
11:34 AM: just before leaving the studio yesterday, I go a call from mikela. she had walks dover to look at the painting, and after she returned to the house she got the the blue & pink border was taking away form the painting, not adding to it. I was beginning. to have the feeling myself, and when I looked at it again with a more critical eye, I confirmed she was right.
that was in the nick of time. had I waited until this morning, the very thin layer of oil paint would have dried & been impossible to wipe off with solvent. so I wiped it all off & brought it to the house, where we both confirmed that was the right thing to do.
BELOW: il torrente on 11/22 (left), mid afternoon on 11/23 and end of day, 11/23 (right)
Il Torrente at the end of my painting day today
3:42 PM: I started my morning placing a seated figure into the composition, which was not at all right & now it’s gone. not even a photographic record.
the I put a very light pink & blue border around the edges, extending to canvas stapled to the sides of the stretcher bars. I think it works, but i’m not completely sure. then I worked into the main body of the composition, adding more patterning derived form the rocks at the creek, & the outlines of branches reflected in the creek.
2:09 PM: a snowy day it is.
DETAIL of il torrente at the end of my painting day today.
moving deliberately very slowly on il torrente. I enriched the blues by adding touches of a darker blue in places. and I enriched the warm grey in the upper central portion, adding some darker marks, like the ones found on the rocks we see at the creek.
not too much more to say.
BELOW: yesterdays version, left & todays and BELOW that, deer in the snow seen out my studio window.
il torrente at the end of my painting day today
2:31 PM: I resumed work this morning on il torrente. my first energy is keenest, as always. my initial impetus to make paintings reflecting both macro & normal distance; details of lichen living alongside or superimposed upon the rocks, branches & water we see on our creek walks.
it’s somewhat of a shock, after making 15 paintings that were all 78x26” to work on one that’s rectangular: 42x48.” I like it. the patterning in this one clearly derives in part from my extended study of taiga & his relationship to natural forms.
3:08 PM: day 2 of work on il torrente, which is the title of this first painting in the series as well as the name of the series itself.
i’m exploring the potential of combining macro images of lichen growing on rocks shot on our creek walks with other images based upon our walks up the creek. work will continue tomorrow. thus far i’m using oil, oil pastel & crayon, on portrait linen 42x48”.
9 PM: yesterday i was making preparatins for torente, an entirely new series inspired by our recent creek walks and by maro shots of the leichen i took last month.
shinkei at the end of my painting day yesterday
6 PM 11-19-19: and today, while working on stage 1 of torente, (the title of this painting & the title of the entire new serie). so what will set it appart from motion series? having just completed the painted the sound of a flute series, i’m in a new space. it’s been emerging over the past month or two. it involves layering, as i’ve been doing over the past few years, creating images that reveal the entire process as just that: a process. without a clearly defined beginning of ending. a slice of life as it happens. we wake up, stuff happens, we go to sleep (more stuff happens). there are moments we remember. they are unpredictable. we can only predict that they will occur. even if you were in solitary confinement, or perhaps especially, there are those moments that will stay with you. that you may write about. there are flashes of light. ah, yes, flashes of light. LIGHT!
they are there, in the evolution of our species; in the flashes of future vision of a species decimated, a planet in extreme distress. more soon….
