Focus on the Making, on the truth of the work
Do not depend on the hope of results…you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to that you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. Thomas Merton
I am happy to announce the inclusion of two of my paintings in the new member exhibit of CWOW curated by Ebony Simpson at the Atrium Gallery of Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ. April 26th- July 25th, 2015. I will be showing "When Morning Comes" Oil on Canvas 48 x 36" and "Squall" Oil on Canvas 36 x 48". In both of these paintings I am using aspects and appearances from the material world to disclose an undercurrent, an inner life . I am showing the stages of these paintings, in this edition of the blog, to demonstrate the process of investigation and exploration I use when painting. These photos were taken in the studio periodically, as the paintings progressed. While displayed in chronological order, the photos were not taken at the end of each painting session. Often there was much editing, adding and removal between the images shown here.
I began this painting, which became "When The Morning Comes", with memories of walking in the woods. I love walking in the woods and I was thinking of the light filtering through the foliage. The lines serve to break up the space suggesting a filigree of trees.
I continued...responding to the underlying structure and adding flecks of gold toned paint symbolizing sunlight to me and using choppy, strokes of unmodulated color, I began to construct a variegated surface.
Accentuating the light and dark, I begin to think of water movement over a surface and how there is similarity in the way shadows play over objects.
The color relationships are used to express the density of the atmosphere.
Lightening the density that was beginning to weigh down the canvas.
Around this time,I decided on the name of this painting " When the morning comes". This name emerged as the painting did and gave direction as I moved closer to resolution. Placing more darks among the lights to choreograph a rippling motion across the canvas. The texture has become an important element, in some areas the painting is so thin you can sense the canvas beneath the thin wash of color contrasts with areas of impasto.
The tones are changed again, larger areas are described, creating spaces for the eye to rest amid the turbulence.
DEVELOPMENT OF "SQUALL"
I began this painting shortly after I began "When Morning Comes", at some points I worked on both canvasses simultaneously.
In this painting the bottom portion of the painting seems flat and shifts to agitated strokes in the middle and upper sections.
Building the color incrementally, the painting begins to take form.
I am working toward a sense of harmony to evoke a quality of contemplation, a feeling of inner peacefulness in the viewer.
Final version of Squall