Thursday, October 18, 2012

Moods

A body of work is starting to come together and though I sense similarities in a palette and obviously the theme of landscape, each one of these pieces is incredibly different in terms of its mood. It's truly remarkable how my current state of being is influencing the piece. These past few months have been stressful and panicky with a new baby. As a result, my latest painting, 'Lilac Day', is simply making me nervous. The lines are anxiously spreading in all kinds of directions, the contrasts in colors are highly overt. There's true tension here, especially in comparison to the previous piece, 'Mount Fuji'. Now could it be as simple as direction of a line and a balanced out composition? Or is this a result of a transfer to a much more expressive palette knife paint application and addition of wax medium to create texture? The only way to find out is to mix the two: use up the little remaining wax with a palette knife and then move back to painting with a brush. Would this result in a piece with an interesting mix of moods or would it simply become muddy and confusing? We shall see.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Direction

It's incredible how immediate our sense of direction is. If there's a horizontal line, it right away suggests a horizon; if there's a vertical line - it's a tree or a building reaching to the sky, any tilting in the stroke and it suggests wind and motion. It's impossible to create an abstract painting without these immediate visual references and more often than not it's when one sees these markers that the piece becomes somewhat confusing. Does this mean you stick with just vertical lines, or horizontals, or you're reaching for the left, or going to the right? Otherwise, it's an immediate reference to a landscape and you're nor here nor there...

FYI, I'm hosting a kids workshop this coming Saturday, October 13th, weather permitting, at the Waldstein Playground in Brookline. Would love to see your kids there. Let me know if you can make it so I could organize enough supplies!