Posts tagged as:

artist

Present Imperfect

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.

{ 2 comments }

Still Life as a Mirror

by Alison on November 29, 2009

My Studio ~ work in progress....

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.

Artist's studio table - work in progress 2

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.

{ 0 comments }