Friday, February 23, 2007

Up to three colors + white!!

I don't know what it is about glassy water.. the calming effect, the light, the motion, the mercurial element. (quicksilver!) What I do know is that I want to keep painting it...This painting started out as an experiment, months ago, in glazing (layering thin glazes of paint, intended to create a luminous quality ) but since I had no idea what I was doing, I just now painted over it.. It's oil, 8"x10". Ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, and white...



Finally got one of those "miscellaneous" ideas out of my head and onto a board (9"x12")...(probably because I got out of the studio and onto a board.. hehe) .. it's one of those beautifully lit Bolinas mornings, off shore wind, perfect conditions, with a nice swell, but closing out on the sandbar at low tide... darn! From a photo by Jesse Wagstaff..
I find that as much as I love waves, I am much more attracted to what "makes" a wave...water, form, light, color and movement/energy....I'm not particularly interested in painting the perfect waves, although I dream of them all the time and love seeing photos.. however, I do need to do a wave or a surf scene every once in a while just to get it out of my system.. voici!

Monday, February 19, 2007

Living dangerously

Cruising on the momentum of having a pallette full of unused paint as well as a gessoed and sanded board, I just went at the surface unprepared and uninformed..usually I spend a lot of time preparing for an image I intend to paint, studying photos, systematically drawing and then transferring an image...but here I just laid down the paint with no awareness of control...It was a lot of fun actually and although it is the preferred technique for many painters, I have never felt comfortable doing it.. Feels too risky I guess, what if I fail?
I actually am quite fond of this little (8"x10") study, and think I am going to tackle the 36"x48" canvas in my studio for something along the same lines..

Refining an image

I knew something had been bugging me about the image below, and in my "desperation" to paint, I decided to risk ruining it and trust my instinct.. I knew it wasn't quite right before, but was tired of working on it and also couldn't see what it needed..What happened is that I ended up making more of a value variation from top to bottom and softening the harsh dark shadows in the water... Maybe it doesn't make that much of a difference to the viewer, but to me, I just couldn't rest until it felt "right" to me.. So I will let it rest now..The good thing is that it got me back painting again...

Before


After.. new and improved

Monday, February 12, 2007

Pin ball machine mind

Well, it seems that yet again I have fallen out of the groove of painting... and it is always so hard to get back in.. I have SO many ideas of images I am attracted to, but no one stands out...So I pop around from one to another. It seems to drain the energy right out of me.. I finally gave up last week and went to the movies.. Then a weekend of avoidance... today I am still avoiding the studio.. I get in the all too famiiar trap of wanting to do something "good" and that leaves me little room to make mistakes and experiment.. So I end up paralyzed and dissatisfied...I know I will eventually let go...
On another note, if you want to see what knocked me off track, here is a link.. I'm the one with a dark shirt and light blue board shorts...(not with long braids) .. marywagstaff.com/surfvideo
So I'm going up to the studio and see if I can get something going..oops, it's noon, maybe after lunch...