As the holidays approach, I wanted to post one more instalment from my painting dairies, before things get too busy. Also, to take a moment to express my gratitude for everyone who has supported me, took an interest in my work, and look for more to come in the new year. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2010!
Peace
A continuation from my painting dairies and so, for the next few years I painted…
I would say the works that followed were studies. I began working on my technique and painted mainly from still life and photographs. Often I would cut dead flowers or bring branches and twigs into my studio and paint the same forms over and over again. But instead of painting the vase and the room the still life sat in, I would zoom in, like you do with a camera lens. Then layer the forms on top of one another, having them fill the entire canvas. The technique gives the spaces around the lines (negative spaces) as much importance as the line or the subject it’s self. I still use this device today although I don’t work with still life much anymore. From this period, I experimented a lot with in the same theme, but I would say it was not a cohesive body of work. I had some gems in the rough, sort of the way golfers describe that one great shot that brings them back. I had some paintings like that, glimpses of greatness. I had a great painting instructor at ACAD, Don Kottmann he was known around the college as the “hockey coach of painting”. Practice, practice, practice, how do you get better at painting he would ask… the answer paint. As I developed my studio practice and went on to teach myself, I found myself often using Don’s techniques with my own students, quick paintings to warm up follow by repetition, painting the same still life over and over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment