Green apple still life

Still Life Oil

The painting was completed by first doing a drawing then a grisaille in burnt umber. I let that dry and then completed the painting. I find it very hard to set up still life’s for painting. It’s hard to get good compositions and the lighting just right.  I’m getting more used to this method and really enjoy the control of setting the value first then the color.

I recently finished a great little book, Robin Oliveira’s I Always Loved You!  It is an historical fiction based on the relationship between Degas and Mary Cassatt.  The writing is poetic in regards to the internal conflicts of an artist. Here is an excerpt from the book that I loved:

"That this striving is always on his (Degas) mind, this making a mark, this elevation of art to the sublime, the real, the relevant, the necessary. That he is unequal to the task—every day, he believes this—and doesn’t know where to place himself in the world or history or the future. That the red herring of pride interferes with real work because the real work is lines and more lines and the willingness to stand before the canvas, the sculpture, the pastel, the easel, the subject, the window, the model and construct form and shape and light and color. That such courage is only the beginning. That there is the essence of the thing that struggles to make itself known, and you don’t know what it is when you begin, that you discover it as you work. That is the secret that critics and laypeople do not understand. That nothing is clear to the artist until the art reveals itself, and it is a mystery where art resides before it is expressed, even though he can recount each step and each choice and each calculation he made; it is this riddle of art that eludes him, even as it infuses him as he works, even as he rejects it because he applies tenacious deliberation to his days and the tension between what he knows and what he doesn’t know abounds. That he doesn’t want to believe the muse exists, though she does—of course she does—for he cannot account for the music of his composition; even as he follows the golden ratio and the laws of tonality and perspective there is the in-between, wherein his brush works and color plays and it is magical and true and beguiling and it comes from him and not from him."

Meditation in Action

Oil on Linen board

 

 

 

We won't talk about how many paintings I tried and threw away before getting this one down pretty well!  I love flowers and need to try more of them but they are so fragile and don't really last that long, you have to work so fast or use photos!

Recently I've been contemplating why I love art and how being alone with nothing but a current piece of artwork I'm working on is like meditation.  I decided there were several reasons in no particular order why I enjoy being alone creating art!

1. Being totally present in the moment
2. Seeing and looking
3. Creating
4. Appreciation and gratitude
5. Transformative
6. Peaceful

I've felt this for a long time but I picked up a recent book about how meditative drawing can be and I think this statement in the book says it best!  "When the eye wakes up to see again, it suddenly stops taking anything for granted.  The thing I draw, be it leaf, rose bush, woman, or child, is no longer a thing, no longer any "object" over and against which I am the supercilious "subject". The split is at once de-thingafied. I say yes to its existence. By drawing it, I dignify it. I declare it worthy of total existence, as worthy of attention as I am myself, for sheer existence is the awesome mystery and miracle we share."

From Zen Seeing Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action by Fredrick Franck.

Monochromatic Oil Painting Or Grisaille

Oil on acrylic canvas

After a very frustrating start with my first attempts at alla prima oils (and almost throwing in the towel), I  completed this monochromatic study of a little Mexican pitcher I found at a thrift store.  I managed to somehow keep the values in pretty good order and to make it look 3-D.  But I wasn't working in color on this one so one less thing to think about in addition to the proportion and values. Adding color will add more complexity and make it harder to keep everything in balance and correct!  Adding color also will add another complexity to the values problem.  I need to learn more about color in value relationships.  I have read a lot about Frank Reilly and his teachings about value and the Munsell approach to color. His teaching is complex but seems worth the effort. 

Experimenting with oils alla prima

Oil on acrylic primed canvas

One of my first tries at alla prima oil painting and I probably should not have started this way. I was overwhelmed with all I had to think about!!  Edges, shapes, color, proportion, value!!!  Oh my!!  I really over blended the colors, left the edges too sharp, and lots of other mistakes!! But the picture looks pretty much like 2 natural looking apples!!  Next I want to try drawing in the subject first and possibly doing a grisaille.