Green Painting

So I was pretty happy with the blue painting, but since I am not really in the habit of starting from a sketch, I figured I had to start somewhere and so I decided the next painting would be green. In color, not in environmental impact.

I'm sure this is not the most orthodox way to paint, certainly not the most efficient, but that seems to be my M.O.

Is it just me or do you see a four letter word beginning with F right smack in the middle of the painting?

What a difference a day makes.

I had just finished reading "Elaine and Bill" by Lee Hall about Willem and Elaine de Kooning. Earlier, I had been studying books on de Kooning and Joan Mitchell's incredible abstract expressionist works. They really spoke to me. Something about the rage, the energy with which their paint attacked the canvas. That's me, painting fiend, especially when on caffeine-- impatient, agitated, exhilarated, restless.

I turned on the iPod and went crazy. Maybe it was the music (LSJUMB playing Rolling Stones) but the brushstrokes hit the canvas in a frenzy, as though I was possessed. I wasn't thinking too much, just reacting, putting down paint where the painting needed it. "Where the painting needed it"? I've heard people say that, that the painting takes over. But I never thought I'd experience it.

I don't really know what came over me but I wish it would happen more often.

Anyway, here's the painting. For the time being, I'm calling it "Looking for Bill and Joan." Although I may also title it "Bundle of nerves."

BTW, this was originally the "blue" painting. Amazing how it changed from day to day!

Give us this day our daily blog.

Here is a summary of the progression as I added layers on the "blue" and "red" painting.

Fear factor

We had our 3rd class. Shiloh talked about taping off parts of our paintings that we wanted to "save". Of course, we might paint over it eventually, but it's a way to have bits of under painting show through the work later on.

I didn't get it. I mean, I taped up my work in random places, but after I painted over it and removed the tape, my painting was still not a masterpiece!

So, more layers, more paint. I tried to execute the "push/pull" concept Shiloh talked about: bringing back colors that had been partially painted over, trying to get a weaving effect going. Again, I obviously need more practice here!

We had critique at the end of class and that was quite helpful. It was very interesting to see how everyone's work evolved during the 2 hour class. There are 4 students, including myself, and we are all very different in our styles and level of experience. None of us had ever done abstract painting before and most of us felt we didn't know what we were doing. But the one thing I observed about other 3 is that they have NO FEAR.

Not me. Fear is a bad, bad thing. And I have lots of it.

I have known this for a while. I don't mean fear of things one should be afraid about. I mean fear of screwing up my paintings. "It's only paint." Duh, I know that!

Fear. And impatience. That's my other problem. So I am working very hard at "walking away", "looking at it with fresh eyes", all that stuff. Then, if it's not "good" I can scrape it off, or leave it and look at it again later, paint over it, whatever.

Painting is hard work. But I already knew that.

As they say, "It's only paint."

So it's Friday afternoon. Class is in a couple of hours. I was going to leave the red and blue abstracts that I did in class last week, and see what instruction Shilo gives us tonight. But, as usual, I couldn't help myself, even though I was nervous I'd go too far and mess it up. Oh, well, it's only paint.

So here are the red (autumn) and blue (rowing in Santa Cruz) with more layers.

Abstract Expressionist?

I'm working in acrylics for the Friday night Abstract class, but I really want to work in oils, so I tried to use the "layering" idea and started an oil.

Here's the first stab at it. I'm sure it will look very different as it progresses.

Taking a stab at action painting

Started an Abstract Painting class a couple of weeks ago at the Pacific Art League. First class was about value--we did a couple of small black and white studies, just to experiment with brush sizes and trying different strokes.

Second week, we started using color, and Shilo (our teacher) told us that "it's all about layers." Start with 10% paint and 90% water (we're using acrylic in class) and build up from there, leaving traces of underpainting. So these are the 2 paintings I started in class (above).