There is a point, about two thirds through the completion of a piece, where it starts to become clear what painting I am actually working on. As much as I have ideas that I am trying to articulate with each piece, and despite my best efforts to plan everything out before I get started, there is really no telling what is going to happen once paint starts hitting the canvas. Lately, I start every painting with the intention of bringing more abstraction and diversity of marks into my work.
Then I start painting.
I start painting and each piece begins to be tighter and more controlled realism than the one before it. I just can’t seem to help myself. I get sucked into the world that I have created for myself where each tiny brush stroke gets its little load of paint mixed independently of every other tiny brush stroke and details that nobody will ever notice are of the utmost importance. Then I get to that point. The point where I finally step back and remember what I was trying to do. The point where I see what kind of painting I am actually making. The point where I have been looking at the tightly controlled paintings and fantasizing about ways to ruin them.
This is when things like the bright red line in this painting (that everyone loves to hate) start happening.
This tendency is only amplified now that I am preparing pieces for a show that I will be taking part in at Fourth Wall Project. Suddenly I am not bringing the biggest, brightest, freakiest pieces to a show filled with traditional paintings. Instead I am bringing the most traditional paintings to a show of people pushing boundaries. Here is the painting I am currently working on, that I hope to finish for the show, right at the point where I find myself searching for the most interesting way to finish (or ruin) this otherwise lovely piece.
Leave it, don’t touch it. Check out Alice Neel portraits, she often left areas of the canvas with out paint.
You are not the only person who has suggested this Maureen. I agree that there is something interesting about the patchy colors of the figure giving way for bare canvas to show through and I am planning on exploring that soon. That said, I will be completing the figure this time. I have a pretty good idea of where I will take this one.
I’ve said it before, you start to lose interest with areas that are not illuminated with physical attributes, and here it’s obvious (the back, upper arm, thigh). Knuckle down and let this painting own you for awhile. The problem with the text, red line is after the second time it becomes too gimmicky and robs the viewer of what you’ve already had whilst painting it; a personal interaction with the subject matter. This piece is clearly your best and needs to direct you around for awhile – in a space like Fourth Wall the unfinished quality will stand out like a sore thumb and not in some Alice Neel kind of way.
I agree Bob and I plan on finishing this piece properly (even the boring parts). No flash, no text, just a nicely painted figure. For the record though, I stand by the red line although, I admit that the text is, at best, hit or miss.
I like the red line in that specific piece, it pulls everything together and gives the painting personality. Your technical stuff developed really quickly; concept and reason is much harder and can will keep you up for weeks.
Seriously. Coming up with concepts or, having opinions and ideas that I want to use is not necessarily hard but actually making a piece that communicates those concepts visually is absolutely maddening.