celebration VIII following todays work.
i continued work on celebration VIII, taking out the pink flowers and inserting a figure. on cottonwood I i surrounded the figures with tan and painted in some flower & leaf shapes.
cottonwood I following today’s changes
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KEEP IT FRESH 32x38” at 3pm this afternoon
11:36 AM: getting a late start today and, as soon as i finish my breakfast, i’ll jump back in to keep it fresh.”
keep it fresh 32x38” , oil on portrait linen at the end of my painting day
1:59 PM : i took keep it fresh to the next levle this morning. on the top, the view out the window adds a cool dimension to the composition. the figures, some of which are partially painted over, let you know that this is not an abstract painting.
this extra fine primed portrait linen makes putting brush to canvas a delightful experience, and supports the painterly….as promised in the title, i’m keeping it fresh!
3:26 PM: as i gazed at the recently completed celebration V, it seemed to muddy. so, after working most of the day on keep it fresh, i went back in to it, using the same pink as in keeping it fresh. it’s looking better, but it’s not there yet. so tomorrow i’ll likely work on them both again & see if i can move towards resolution.
celebration V 14x18” following todays modifications
BELOW: celebration V before (left) & after today modifications
KEEP IT FRESH, 32x38” oil on portrait linen, at the end of day one
2:04 PM: mikela and i were playing around with possible titles for my april show in houston. one of them was keep it fresh,” which, whether i decide to use it or not, i’m naming this new painting on just stretched 32x38” primed linen. it’s the next to last piece i was able to cut from the 85” roll, so i’m ordering more.
so far, it’s blues, greens and sienna; no pinks yet. up top is a view out the high, north facing studio window.
celebration V following the tweaks i made this morning
12:19 PM: i left celebration V in a post-scraping state yesterday, so i went back in and made some small but important tweaks to the two figures.
celebration V as it looked after rubbing out what i did this afternoon
5:18 PM: after leaving the studio i realized i had done too much to celebration V. so while mikela was preparing dinner, i went back to the studio & rubbed out everything i did today. a few other things were taken out along with what i did today. so i’ll go back in tomorrow.
celebration V 14x18” oil & collage on portrait linen, at the end of my painting day today
BELOW: celebration V on february 10 (left) and following todays modifications (right)
2:46 PM: i continued work on celebration V, which i last worked on 3 days ago. i think it’s more balanced and coherent now, and has some kinship with celebration VII. this may be a result of my collaging a few pieces of paper, one of which is a cutout piece of map. i did something similar with celebration VII.
12:25 PM: i was in a mood this morning. i grabbed celebration VII, which i had considered complete, and collaged a few pieces of paper i had drawn on for the purpose, as well as a piece of map.
the reason i say letting go” in the title of today’s blog post is that i had to enter unknown territory when i began collaging and painting over areas i had worked many hours creating. in the end, you have to sacrifice prized details and passages like that for the sake of the whole. so i let my brush take the lead, and simply followed where it was taking me, irrespective of whether i was painting over precious details.
there’s no road map for where i went. no process i could repeat. the result set me on my heels.
BELOW: celebration VII before (left) and after todays work
1:55 PM: on february 2, i had whited over the entire celebration IV, which i then painted over with some loose sketchy figures. just now i decided to go back into it. at the moment it may seem like a bit of a mess, but i’ll take it further on tuesday, since i won’t be in the studio tomorrow.
BELOW: celebration IV before (left) and after todays modifications
3:12 PM: celebration V had too much black, so i re-worked it just now & i think it’s hugely improved.
BELOW: the before & after todays re-work
12:29 PM: i cropped the image of celebration VII and one of those crops proved interesting to pursue as a new painting: celebration VIII. this is a preliminary sketch on the 16x20 linen canvas….let’s see where she goes next!
BELOW: on the left is this mornings sketch; on the right, where celebration VIII was at the end of my painting day
1:15 PM: celebration VII 16x20” as it looked following the work i did this morning
1:09 PM: we both felt there was too much black in celebration VII, so i worked on it quite a bit, taking out most of the black and revising the entire composition, so that it now sings. what’s most successful in this painting is how the two figures integrate with the basket of fruit and flowers, inspired by a photo i shot decades ago on the deck of a house we were living in in southern europe. if you check out the two details i posted, the fruit and flowers are more clearly visible.
celebration VII 16x20” oil on linen as it looked at the end of my painting day today
1:53 PM: today i did extensive work on celebration VII. the composition is now rich with colors; perhaps most importantly the reds of the flowering cactus on the upper left and the blue checkered patterning below, playing off the checkered patterning on the sleeve of the handstand figure. both figures were inspired by the celebrations that took place following the 2020 olympics, where checkered patterning was a general theme, both in the clothing and the background sets.
