Maine, 2009

I've just returned from painting in Maine. Many images to come.

Updating Stotesbury painting

I'm back into a painting I started in mid-May. The hardest thing is getting the rowers in the right position, oars on the correct sides. When I did the painting, the boat was a blur as it went by and there were oars, reflections, colors merged together. As much as I want the work to show what it was like in that moment, the painting was done as a commission and I need to fulfill the expectation that a few details will show the team, the athetes. Now that I've put in those dashes of paint, I need to work on the whole -- finding the rhythm of the paint. The composition, as it stands now, has a strong diagonal feel with the rooftop seen above the bridge (I think it's at the Philadelphia Zoo) pulls you toward it. I may switch things around and see if I can alter the experience a bit.

Agricultural History

Out in Derwood, Md., this morning at a farm that's been turned into an Agricultural History Center.

View of a Parking Lot

The view in every other direction included a stream, rocks, trees, a bridge... and the jockeying of artists for a "good" spot left me with a view of the parking lot.  Walt Bartman has passed along the advice (I don't know who said it first -- Charles Hawthorne?) that you should pick the pretty scene you want to paint and then turn around and paint what's behind you instead.  So, I was facing a parking lot.

The low horizon was a big departure for me, as was filling most of the canvas with the sky.  I had initially painted the cars in a bit more detail, not a lot, but ended up with just the suggestion that they were there.

What Lies Beyond

Yes, this is the same painting I was working on in the last post.  Why the dramatic change?  I was uninspired by the first result, which was a pretty literal look at the scene.  I don't have a need to work that tired approach into the ground, so I decided to force the issue of focus -- what you are really looking at -- by silhouetting the front house and trees and pushing the painting toward the spot of yellow that I'd always wanted to be the focal point.  As a thought process and a concept, I'm happier with the outcome.   Not sure, though, that I'm where I want to be in terms of turning the concept into a visual experience.  

Simplify

As I was painting this lockhouse on the C&O canal (the canal is at my back), my first impression of the site was quickly overwhelmed by an interest in the textures of the lockhouse stones, the rough tree bark, the long grasses in front of the building.  Those textures, though, exist largely in my memory, and aren't what I'm actually able to see.  

I'm still caught between simplifying the image and getting caught up in bits of light or details.  The details, though, are the opposite of the experience.  I need to make the heaviness of the lockhouse a stronger element and see where that takes me.  More on this to come.

Sketching at Stotesbury Regatta

Brookside Gardens

This is the view from the Reflection Terrace toward the teahouse at Brookside Gardens.  The memorial is a contemplative spot, dedicated to the memory of the victims of sniper attacks 7 years ago.  Right in front of me were the words "hope for a gentler world and seek a reverence for life among all people."

After many long rainy weeks, this was a first bright morning to paint.  I ended up in a discussion with Walt Bartman and a passerby about painting and the scene.  The question we were debating was how far to take the painting toward detail and "reality."  My vision for the painting came from the soft focus of a reflective moment and the feelings inspired by the idea of a gentler world, so even if I could have, I didn't want to go further with it.  Next time, though, I think I'll take Walt's advice, bring two canvases.  Leave one at the state I feel achieves my vision and then do another, taking it to a higher level of resolution and see what comes of it.

In the Art World -- Pictures vs Words

I'm reading Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton.  Highly recommend it.  The chapter called "The Crit" focuses on CalArts.  Thornton says "It used to be said that some art colleges instructed their students only 'up to the wrist' (in other words, they focused on craftsmanship) while CalArts educated its artists only 'down to the wrist' (its concentration on the cerebral was such that it neglected the fine art of the hand)."   

Thornton goes on to discuss the critique process and how " there is undue pressure on artists to verbalize.  Many believe that artists shouldn't be obliged to explain their work.  As Hickey [an art critic] declares, "I don't care about an artist's intentions.  I care if the work looks like it might have some consequences."

So -- first -- I have to apologize to my fellow painter George, whom I asked to explain what was going on in a series of paintings he's been doing.   Still, I won't stop writing about what I'm working on, because I'm kind of a verbal person and it's not unnatural for me to match words to my own images.  

And  second -- where do I fit in the down to the wrist/up to the wrist thinking about art?  I have to admit I think craftsmanship is overrated...  but I have to think a lot more about this.  

What do you think?

Pond, Flowerpots at Brookside Gardens

The garden designers at Brookside set groupings of terra cotta pots into a rectangular pond with a fountain.  In 90 degree heat, it's an intense spot of color and ripples amid a very still setting.  The flower pot with the grasses hid a duck which had laid its eggs and was nesting there.