Post-Modern Apps I

Post-Modern Apps I

24" x 30" acrylic on canvas    SOLD

Last week I was missing my big apple painting (below) which I sold to a good friend last year  - so I decided to paint another one. Different apples, different composition, not quite as large, and very different palette. Many of my paintings lately have started out in a high key colour palette, but as they evolved became quite a bit darker. I worked hard at not letting this happen here. And I also quite happily ignored the real apple colours for ones that I liked more. While in the middle of this one I started a second......and have plans for a third one also. 

A Trio of Still Life of Objects

Trio

12" x 10" -  acrylic on wood panel - $95

This was another demo I did in the Acrylic Techniques Workshop. I started with a cadmium red ground, and tried to restrict my palette to cool colours (blue, green, violet), but of course felt too restricted, and had to get out the yellow. I really like the composition and the way the object fill the space. I enjoy painting on wood panels from time to time. The way the wood surface accepts the paint is quite different than on canvas, and so my brushwork is quite different too.

Come Closer

Come Closer
10" x 10"  acrylic on canvas
SOLD

Another tulip, another view. I find that photographing any painting with red and getting it to look right on the screen is a challenge. It can look a little too surreal. The actual painting is a little less vibrant than what you see here, I think, and nicer for it. 

Triptych - Day 3

stage 4

stage 5

Yesterday I was able to paint all day and so I worked on the triptych and another large painting that I am hoping to enter into a show next week (but will show you that later). It has been and continues to be an interesting process as I refine each panel, while keeping an eye on the other two. If you compare them all you will see the changes and refinements - and hopefully improvements. The good thing is I know what  I want to work on next, in each panel - but won't have a chance to do much for a few days. I think I getting closer to completion, at least in the short term. As always, time will tell.

If you have any thoughts - let me know. Have a great day.

Why Paint One When You Can Paint Three?

Yesterday I worked on New Hat, a painting based on a photo of our daughter. I made some changes that I am quite happy with, and others that I am not. It continues to be a work in progress, and I will post it here soon. While working on it I also started another painting - which you can see below.

Last fall I painted a couple of still life paintings in which I lost and found edges, blurring the lines between object and ground and thus played with space and illusion. I have wanted to continue exploring these ideas, and because the canvases on hand were 24" squares, I decided to put several together and create a triptych. I drew the objects on the canvases with a water colour pencil crayon, and then went over the lines with acrylic paint.  At that point I wasn't sure what I had - so I started just filling in the shapes with colour. 

I know it looks like a cartoon - but it will change when I can get back to it. More colour, more drawing, some additions and subtractions. I am looking forward to this one (or three).  But if you don't see much in the next week it's because our daughter is arriving today for her university winter break and spending time with her will be a priority. I am sure you will understand!

Edge Loss Continues

Harmony in Blue and Green  30"x48"  SOLD

I completed this large still life soon after Edge Play, my first foray into the world of 'defocus and blur' in painting. While that was still a goal here, I found it difficult to limit my palette and reduce and simplify detail. (I love colour and I just had to go with my instinct as I painted, rather than be a slave to any formula.) It was easier in certain areas of the painting to blend the colour of the object into the background colour, or just soften the edge of an object through blurring. I do like how the wall at the right blends with the tree scene through the window at the left and then down into the table top. I also really like the intense colouring in some of the objects. Can you see the pastel lines suggesting some topical detail in the flowers? I do like drawing back into a painted area. I think it keeps me from getting too tight.

Peonies and Pears     24"x24"  SOLD

Here is another still life painted soon after Harmony. Again I have softened some object edges and the interior wall blends into window scene outside at the right, through colour. But again, the painting is more detailed than Edge Play.  

What do you like better? The more abstract nature of Edge Play or the more natural look of Harmony and Peonies?

  

Lost and Found Edges

Edge Play  24"x 20" sold

This is a recent still life in which I wanted to 'play with edges' (hence the title) and the relationahip between 'figure and ground'. I began with a fairly straightforward drawing of the objects using black acrylic paint, and then as I painted, limited my palette to blues, yellows and greens, with a bit of red and orange for contrast.
I had been thinking about something Robert Genn (of the Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter) had written  in A Free Chapter of "The Painter's Keys"  about making "lists or recipes...systems you use: plans, directions, techniques" when painting and then gives a sample recipe list. Among the many important ideas is defocus: "Paintings that are equally sharp and focused are boring. When we work from life, our eyes dart around the subject, focusing on each item, and this creates a problem. Real life is different....Your paintings will pick up life if subjects you wish to feature are sharper, and secondary elements softer". Then he goes on and suggests that by blurring some subjects and areas in your paintings you can "Create mystery and paucity. Paucity means smallness of number or quantity. In art it means the minimal expression needed to convey the form or idea." He talks about reinforcing negative space areas and suggests lost and found edges: "Evaporate some things and let the viewer's eye behold some mystery and excitement."
I began to look for those ideas (defocus, blur, lost & found edges) in the work of other artists and immediately thought of Henri Matisse. In his painting The Blue Window you see a collection of still life objects arranged on a rectangular surface in the lower third of the composition. Behind this is a window through which you can see a highly stylized voluptuous tree, some hills and sky with one lone cloud. All other parts are painted in varying shades of blue so that the distinction between table surface, interior wall, and outdoor three dimensional space is blurred, creating a wonderful play between figure and ground, reality and illusion. You can see similar ideas at work in The Red Studio and Harmony in Red as well.

Tulips, Pears and Peaches

With Matisse's paintings and Robert's ideas in mind I started painting my still life. My 'normal' artistic approach with this kind of subject is to draw the objects accurately in a credible three dimensional space. Once I have claimed the image as mine on the canvas, I follow my intuition in how I paint and the colours I use. The two paintings at the left are more typical of my style.

Really Big Pears 

My goals in Edge Play were to blur the lines between object and background, find and lose edges, and ultimately play with space and illusion. I loved the painting process - the internal decision making as to which edge to lose by blending the object's colour with the background colour, and which edge and therefore object to maintain and focus on. At the same time of course, there was the need to keep design principles in mind -  location of focal point, rhythm, harmony etc. Probably the biggest challenge was to just let some objects be a weird (even for me) colour - and here I am thinking about the daffodil leaves, vase, and pears.  I am very happy with the painting and see it as the first in a new series in which I will continue to explore lost and found edges.
What do you think?