process

So i thought i would share the steps of one of my current paintings. My process has always been one of discovery, with both form and 'content' evolving through trial and error. I'll start a composition with a notion of intent, but knowing that it can go any which way. Elements get added in or deleted. The decision to make a move can take weeks. Sometimes I'll hit a wall and have to make a brash move - cathartic destruction to open up a new avenue of creation.

So I am certainly not an illustrator, rarely crafting a preset image.

I find it is good to voice out loud what the painting seems to say to me and what i want it to say. Of course too much of that and ones paintings run the risk of becoming over simplified and locked down.

2 half tables in a bar. An fun but awkward space, with a sense of imminence. A door comes and goes, only to return again. Lights with numbers (i'll call it the bingo bar maybe) to suggest possibility, that your number has come up.

This is where ones community comes in. We need others to ask questions that we cannot think to ask. Whether the questions are relevant or not is an other issue. Today i ask myself, 'where do i want my eye to settle, and how do i want to achieve that?' Maybe that isn't necessarily important, but it could be so i should consider it. How can i vary the physicality to make a stronger impact?

and the list goes on.



And then we had a studio break in. I had hoped to insert some previous states of the current painting, but they went with my laptop. argh...

and life goes on....

minimalism