apikia 7x13" mixed media on archival paper
10/25/14 collage 13x13" mixed media on archival paper
1:21 pm update: i was in the mood to make collages today, which you see above & on the right. last night i read a quote from a gerhard richter interview in conjunction with his current show in london. when asked about his move towards abstraction, he said "if i see something that reminds me of a dog, i throw it out." i can say the exact opposite. i love the fluid ambiguity engendered by the layering of drawings, maps, pieces of palette and so on. there's always a whale or a dog or breasts somewhere in the picture, and i love that. to quote clement greenberg once again:
"homeless representation....a plastic and descriptive painterliness that is applied to abstract ends, but which continues to suggest representational ones." clement greenberg on dekooning, 1962
earlier this morning: taking advantage of the warmer than average temperatures yesterday, i ventured out to n. crestone creek, where i made the plein air painting below. included in the photos are an unusual number of details, as well as a shot of my palette.
in these details, if you take the time to make them full screen and study them, are the characteristics of that fugitive term painterly. the last photo is a detail of an interior i painted in 1999, illustrating that same quality of the painterly. "wet into wet," a technique i spoke of in a recent post, which is a technique specific but not limited to the medium of oil paint, is a delicious experience for the artist as well as the viewer.
we are indebted to all the artists who came before us. today, i feel particular gratitude for philip guston. i haven't thought of him in a while, but clearly, some of what you see in the painting below wouldn't have been possible had i not been familiar with his work from the '50's. the last photo below is a guston painted in 1955.
today: once i meditate & have my matcha tea, i may decide to make a new collage on paper. i'm in that kind of mood. more this afternoon.
