by Alison on June 7, 2010
Alas, it was not meant to be.
Today I scrapped a canvas I’d been developing for about three weeks. It had developed considerably from the initial sketch, taking on a life of its own as the image emerged, and I reacted. I really loved the direction it was going so much that I overworked an element, even though it didn’t fit in this particular canvas. Eventually, although it had many good elements, I removed the canvas from the stretchers and binned it. Elements were fussy, and out of balance. In addition, I had manipulated the surface of the painting to a point where it just didn’t pass the grade for my quality control. I just can’t stand to produce an imperfect work.
It is certainly true that I shouldn’t have poured thinner over it and then torn it from its stretchers, but so much emotion goes into painting, and so much of your personality, that sometimes the pot boils over in frustration, a ship on stormy waters, especially after very long painting sessions, like today.
Looking at the photo I took just before I pushed it too far, I am reassured that it would not have been a work I would have wanted to add to my portfolio, as it was. And there was no way I could have made the improvements I wanted to make, without basically painting over much of it.
Nevertheless, I will begin again tomorrow, this time with an improved composition, and with a new idea for what the focus of the painting will be. And it will be even better.
I have learned to accept that the path to improvement is strewn with failures. Trust me when I tell you that this doesn’t make the process any less exasperating, or painful. Allowing myself the space to fail is like allowing myself to take a full, deep breath.
It’s only Art, and there’s always tomorrow. I will begin again.
by Alison on February 13, 2010
Piet Mondrian - Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue - 1921
A very charming student from a local college visited me in my studio a few weeks ago, as they had to choose a living artist whose work they liked on whom to write a paper. She had literally twenty questions to ask me. One of the questions, the last one, stopped me in my tracks because of the response it engendered from me.
The most ordinary little question took me stumbling down a new path of understanding about myself, my art, and how it felt to be an artist.
She asked me, “Where do you get your inspiration?”.
I answered immediately with the first words that materialized, and as I said them I knew they were, for me, completely true: “Inspiration is irrelevant”.
She looked somewhat surprised, so I went on to explain my assertion to her. Each painting I create is a distillation of my experiences of perceiving and existing, they are my answer and reaction to simply being. My creative process requires me to cull and sculpt my possible artworks down to the chosen few that I can achieve in a day/week/month/year/lifetime. Being an artist fulfills every aspect of who I am and I am an artist every second.
Matisse, Joy of Life, 1905-6
There is a section in the book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark where the author describes Nature as writing questions and answers continually in the skies, and stones, and trees and grasses for those who can decode the language.
My ‘inspirational’ or creative process feels like a dialogue between the collection of experiences that comprise myself as well as my immutable core, and the lines, form, colors and light in the natural world.
She speaks, and I answer. I question, she replies.
I have no idea what she has told me or what I have replied on any conscious level, but each painting is a record of our conversation.
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>> Artist Deborah T. Colter has written her response to this post. Please visit her site to read it!<<
>>Artist Roslyn Dames has written about inspiration in response to my post. <<
by Alison on December 4, 2009
I am hosting an Open Studio Sale, offering works of art from just $100, ready framed! They are the perfect recession-busting way to give the gift of fine art to yourself, or your loved ones.
Please come and visit me on December 11th at 6pm till 9pm, and December 12th at 11am until 4pm. Refreshments will be offered.
I am located just east of the intersection of Northwest Hwy and Lemmon/Marsh, next to Bugatti’s restaurant.
by Alison on November 29, 2009
Day One: composition & color balance
I am working on this new still life, showing the bottles and cans on my table. This table is a large glass tabletop on two trellis legs. It is incredibly versatile for me, as I can use it directly as my palette, and it is a huge surface for me to spread out my paints on.
Day Two: shapes emerging....
This canvas will be composed of patterns, grey, blue, gold, black, white, that seen from a distance will form a recognizable image. Inevitably, it expresses my feelings about my subject ~ my warm golden oils that seem to glow with an inner light; the moody, complex overlapping glass; the can of Gamsol that has a skewed perspective, wrapping around the left of the composition; the balancing terracotta pot in which I keep my brushes being the compositional balance.
This canvas is, as all art objects truly are, a self-portrait.
by Alison on November 4, 2009
This is a self-portrait, that may or may not be finished. The colors are inspired by Matisse, and this piece is nearly a homage to that great painter of color. I say almost, because it has other themes too. It is framed by music art, and by the art of political posters, in the posture of the figure. The figure is almost confrontational, fierce (not unlike me, sometimes). The beautiful patches of light through the honeysuckle captivated me, and burn off the skin. They show on the outside what is within.
More to do perhaps, but I love it so far.
by Alison on September 14, 2009
Sunday sped by slinkily, as I painted from dawn till dusk (nearly) at my new studio space.
I worked on my Starshine (Before the Dawn) abstraction and by the end of the day I had made great progress. One more session should get it to where I can stop work on it.
My husband and children worked diligently fixing lights, spackling holes, painting over them and generally making the space look immaculate. What would I do without them?
My space is open for business, although I won’t be there full time for another three weeks. Currently, I am there on Saturday and Sundays. On October 24th, I shall have my launch party … fun fun fun!
