Early Spring

So I'm finishing up a series of 3 paintings of cherry blossoms right now - The first one I had started last year and put aside unfinished- the other two fresh but from the same series of reference photos. What I really like about them is how "painterly" they are, kind of realist-ish, graphic outlines but realistic/impressionistic treatment of details.

What I don't like is that they are just what they are - pretty paintings of pretty flowers - but maybe that is enough no? To just be what you are?

But what flowers are is something completely different then what we humans take them for. They are absolutely built for sex - and the seduction of pollinators - I would love it if my art could speak of the tawdriness of flowers - they are complete sluts really! I guess that's what led to the sexual readings of Georgia O'keeffe's work - you can't get away from what flowers really are.

Anyway my thought for these was to be in a series of plant life in the four seasons - as stand ins for humans and a reminder that there are always spring blooms waiting during the harshest barren winter. The decaying dead leaves are the stuff of which verdant life emanates.

One final thought - Acrylic is soooooo not the thing to paint cherry blossoms with - may feel the need to do some watercolo(u)rs to do justice to the translucency of the petals.

The word of the day

is didactic which I just found out is what I hate about my own work - I love doing the research and learning new things about a subject - but when I put it to "paper" I feel like I'm bashing people over the head with it... it feels far too literal and not poetic... however there is someone out there doing a spectacular job of it and he recently won the Turner prize.

Last time I felt this way was when I had an extremely feminist (male!) professor who felt I wasn't taking things far enough and I ended up feeling that my personal statements (which were my exploration of women in the world (as I was discovering my "womanhood" as it were - like when I was 20!?- seems so young now!) manifesting in my art were way too over the top. I ended up abandoning my painting studio and literal work and doing abstract sculpture out of sticks in my back yard - still with the same thoughts but completely different manifestations. I ended up winning the senior sculpture prize that year so maybe I should follow my gut on this one as well! Maybe I'm just not giving the thoughts time to percolate through my subconscous and come out the other side - if there is a Jungian global consciousness thing going on then I should be able to find some meaningful form of representation that doesn't have to be so literal. I guess I need to see more work that really resonates with me and feels like something I want to be doing and dissect the why and how... time to do more.... Research!!!

Had a great day for the brain - Rick took X down to the states for the day and the house was silent - after having guests for the past 2 weeks - it was quite strange but restful and I was able to listen to "Q: your daily dose of arts, culture and entertainment" which is a totally awesome radio show on CBC - which is how I made my discovery - on podcast while setting up the studio - let's hear it for the internet! Hopefully I'll now have a few good hours of painting - need a new image to send out for the Studio Tour promo stuff tomorrow....

I see rocks...

when I close my eyes

Slowly but surely

So the painting is coming along super slowly - I keep promising myself to work more loosely and use my big brushes and I keep ending up pulling out the 0's. This picture isn't totally up to date as I've finally broken into the big white square and started painting the rocks (b+w pass first, then I'll decide on colors) And there was another glazing pass on the snowflake. I've realized I'm making a painting that will be impossible to capture in a single photograph as I'm taking advantage of the acrylics to do things viewable at different angles.

This is the first time I've had a regular studio practice since grad school and it feels great - although the lack of sleep might get to me - I can get a few hours in after X is asleep now that I have a ton of lights in the studio - a few cool Otts to balance my big floods - it will be quite a warm setup in summer but for now it's perfect!

Water Painting

This is the current painting on my painting table - the work is for a show I'm organizing for the ArtistCircle group. It is called "Water = Life" and is on from Feb 14th - March 23rd. It is in celebration of the UN World Water Day on March 22nd. I'm scrambling to finish the painting and coordinate the show so I'll probably not be posting much until this one is completed.

This work is about the properties of water and how the existence of life on earth depends on these properties. I'm happy with my start but now need to figure out the huge blank area and my next layers of images for the left side - so I'm going to do some digital sketching / collage and then take that back to the real world!

In-devoir

So I was thinking of calling my blog "Chasing the Muse" but it turns out someone is squatting on that one - so then I was thinking of "endeavor"