2:16 PM: i didn’t feel like doing anything further to good doc, so i started periscope,which has the exact sme dimensions as benaki vista: 78x23”/198x58cm.it’s loosely based on photos i shot on our athens trip. thus far it’s in alignment with my latest color tendencies: pastel-ish greens, yellows, greys with accents of red.
8:44 AM: i was talking with mikela for about an hour as she was driving to san luis, where she just arrived to give her 3 hour presentation to some of the high school kids there. towards the end of our conversation, which covered a number of subjects, i spoke about my process of creating this latest painting: benaki vista.
check out the 4 stages in it’s development, above, to clarify the points i’m about to make. click on the first to make it full screen, then the right arrow to move to the next stage.
my main point is that the viewer becomes part of the process. what do i mean by that?
because this painting is layered, with each succeeding stage partially covering the previous one, my process is transparent. this can, if they are so oriented, engage the viewer in my process of creation. their discoveries, which may well be very different than mine as i gaze at it this morning, become part of their own process.
as well, it’s important to know that, during the period of time i was working on this painting, i was browsing through some of my books on matisse, archile gorky and deKooning.
one of the reasons i now consider this painting “resolved” is that my ongoing process of mark making, scraping, rubbing has reached a moment of perfect balance. could i take it even further? sure! but my gut says it’s enough. like when you know you’ve eaten enough of a delicious meal, and any more would just be the habitual shoveling of food into our mouths, rather than that exquisite spark of a new flavor or mixture of flavors that needs to be savored over time.
so that’s what the viewer is presented with: that moment when it just needs to be savored. and in the process, subtle discoveries happen. discoveries that someone else eating that dish may not have made.
that said, of course the ideal is to be able to view the painting in person rather than on a screen. we’ve become used to viewing art on a screen, but when you have the opportunity of viewing a work of art in person, it’s a very different experience. is reading about savoring a great dish the same as actually tasting it?
ideally, the viewer’s experiences lead them to re-visit parts of their own daily-weekly-monthly-yearly process. the process of becoming who they are, knowing increasingly who that is, celebrating and enjoying it, and using that knowledge to enrich their own experience of being alive in a body, as well as those in their circle.
FINAL: benaki vista 78x23”/198x58 cm. oil & collage on linen
6:03 AM: up at 4am today in preparation for mikela’s early departure to san luis, an hour and a half drive from crestone. today is forecast to be a sunny day, warming up to 55F, which is just about normal for this time of year.
6:30 am morning sky frmo our living room looking south
yesterday before leaving the studio i did more work on benaki vista, originally inspired by photos i shot during our visit to athens a few weeks ago. now, there’s only a trace of the original composition. when i go to the studio later this morning, i’ll see if the oils have dried enough to take it from my painting table & secure it to the wall, so that i can look at it over breakfast & see where it wants to go next, or if it feels resolved.
here’s a detail of the lower portion of the composiion.
DETAIL: benaki vista, 78x23”/198x58cm, oil & collage on linen
the smaller dots you see were made by pressing a sheet of bubble wrap into the wet paint. the larger ones are a result of flicking my wide brush full of white oil paint onto the surface, much the same as pollock and so many other, more contemporary artists have done.
what remains of the previous composition, which you see here, contributes to the many layered richness.