2:36 PM: i like working on two things in tandem. if possible, two very different things. so as 12/19/20 creek oil became progressively more abstract, my new watercolor/collage 166 became more and more realist. it’s a good example of how there’s really no difference. flowers and leaves? yes. marks on a surface? yes again!
the juice is in the marks, the colors, the forms. the story is a developing one, of how the surface dictates the movement of the brush. how the voluptuousness the the reds, for example, gives way to the energy of the greens. and how the white of the surface interacts with them. sexually, one could say.
watercolor/collage 166 stage 1
12/19/20 creek oil 32x32”, at noon today
12:34 PM: today started out with me starting a small watercolor based on photos i shot of mikela watering our ever growing flowering pink plant. i couldn’t resist the temptation to do more work on 12/19/20 creek oil, so i lay it flat on my saw horses and did some work. i painted over the marks i made over the past few days with titanium buff; a color i love. then i blotted it so it wouldn’t run when i hung it on my east wall, got up on my step ladder (also titanium buff colored) and began making marks while referring to a photo of the creek i printed out. it’s one of many, but i chose this one for it’s inherently abstract feel. and i surrendered to my love of mark making almost but, and this is important, not completely divorced from a subject. the subject, as matisse has said many times, are the marks on the surface.a few square meters of frozen creek provide the forms and colors that guide my brush, and give the viewer a dream space. the visible process underlying the image is a journey in time.
BELOW: the evolution of 12/19/20 creek oil over the past week
