Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Painted Study

Hi guys. I've been working in my studio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I've got an idea for a painting of my kids and their friends romping outside in the hose. I'm working from several photos. I have always been taught that is sacrilege, but hey, if it's good enough for Degas, Matisse, and Fischl, then it's good enough for me. Hell, even Vermeer probably used a camera obscura. I figure, use the tools you have to the best of your ability. I've done 2 painted studies so far. It's been a while since I painted so they are quite stiff and too literal. I'm not showing pictures of those today.

I painted on one of the stiff compositions until about 1:30, and realized I had only 1 hour before I had to start retrieving boys from schools, and I wasn't very happy with what I had done. I had several primed canvases, and I decided to start another quickly and try to be loose. I already had paint on my palette, so I picked up a canvas and did a quick gesture with just oil and mineral spirits. That felt good, so I took a picture:



Then I thought, it would be cool to take sequential pictures of the development of the canvas. Cool that is if I can get my hands on the camera regularly. So I only had about a half and hour to continue. I took a couple more shots. Here's one with some color and the composition laid out a little more:



And this one is just a little farther along than the previous one:



This study is one of at least 5 of the kids individually. I plan to make a couple of compositional studies with all the kids, and to paint at least one large scale finished painting. My goal is to move towards more abstracted imagery using the essential forms in the photograph. Want to watch?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, impressive! Talking about me and painting/scatching - I am total idiot! During my elementary school I have had the biggest problems with gymnastics and painting!

vtwopoint5 said...

Yes I want to watch! Awesome stuff you're doing.

Susan said...

Hell yeah I want to watch! Can't wait to see what's next!

Beth said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE! I've always wished I could paint. Tried it once with those Donna Dewberry books. I can't even make a leaf. Please conitnue to take pictures for all of us wanna be's.