It’s been a long, long winter. I’ve mostly been concentrating on portrait painting. I’ve missed painting portraits; working on these paintings have been both fun and challenging. The two that I have been working on in this time have been a portrait of my friend Frank and one of my Father. These portraits serve more as a means of getting my feet back in the painting water so to speak. Though it may seem like I’ve been slacking by only producing two portraits this entire winter that is not the case. These paintings have gone under numerous revisions; so many that if I had stopped every time I thought I had finished I would most likely have around 10 to 15 paintings.
While working on these paintings I struggled with a variety of challenges: 1) Drawing. I was so eager to “paint” that many times I wouldn’t slowdown and check to see if the structure was right which would often result in me re-painting the entire thing. 2) Color. I usually limit my pallet as much as I can and get the most out of the colors I have. On this go around I decided to work out of my comfort zone and add a little more to the palette. The result wasn’t what one would call desirable unless you like the color of mud in which case game on. A return to the minimal palette was in order. I also was attempting to mix my own black; something I use to do really well, but now not so much, I started to get the hang of it when near the end of the (father) painting. 3) Approach. I keep teetering between a more representational Neo Baroque style of painting and a looser expressionist style, which I have yet to fully resolve. 4) Reference. I largely work from photograph due mainly to the fact that most people nowadays will not sit for the lengths of time that I need them to sit for and I live to far away. This makes the photograph my only choice. I don’t mind working from the photograph, but it does present it’s own set of challenges. You can get too caught up in the details. The photo never changes, which can be good and bad. Since the photo never changes it’s hard to catch the spontaneity of the moment in time between you (the painter) and the subject, but on the other hand by the photo never changing you have a reliable source to cross-reference your work with. Some painters (most of which I admire) speak of working from photograph like it’s a sin. I don’t believe this to be so as long as the information is being processed from you the Human (or Elephant in some cases) to the substrate all is well. In my case I just need to calibrate between myself the subject and the medium, right now I’m just trying to find the correct balance.
Over all I’m fairly pleased with how the paintings turned out. I don’t really feel like their done, but I do feel the need to work on something else. I have a lot of new Ideas in the works that I’m looking forward to, so I better get to it.
Posts
