So rather than set up an elaborate pre-design for your still lifes, apparently you prefer to begin more provisionally and add or subtract elements during the process. I like your approach--keeps a sense of discovery.
It's really the ONLY way I can paint. The reality is that I need an immense amount of freedom to choose or change at a moment's notice- so that this approach feels comfortable for me. I would have trouble staying with a plan a second longer if I didn't think it was working. I'm all about 'finding' it in the painting. I always draw freehand, for the same reason. Obviously, this approach would never work for murals....and painting watercolors feels like walking a tight rope without a net. Thrilling...as long as I look straight ahead.
Thanks, Donna! Another great tool is a mat knife. Many a painting miraculously improves with cropping. With "Green Jar", I used a prepared board, that happened to fit a frame. Perhaps it would be better for the integrity of the painting to not think about the framing. On this painting, I keep wanting to cut the painting @ at the silver pitcher, remove and replace the pitcher with something else- as it feels to me that there's a tug of war for the attention going on between the white bowl and the silver, too similar in size and placement. Since such drastic cropping is rather permanent, I'll wait and crop as a last resort, if I think that the painting can be salvaged. Right now, the picture looks boring to me, without a strong value pattern of darks on the left hand side to lead the eye around the picture plane. The silver with roses could- and maybe should- be a separate painting. I don't think it's playing the supporting role very well in this one. I'll wait and the answer will become more clear.
4 comments:
So rather than set up an elaborate pre-design for your still lifes, apparently you prefer to begin more provisionally and add or subtract elements during the process. I like your approach--keeps a sense of discovery.
It's really the ONLY way I can paint. The reality is that I need an immense amount of freedom to choose or change at a moment's notice- so that this approach feels comfortable for me. I would have trouble staying with a plan a second longer if I didn't think it was working.
I'm all about 'finding' it in the painting.
I always draw freehand, for the same reason. Obviously, this approach would never work for murals....and painting watercolors feels like walking a tight rope without a net. Thrilling...as long as I look straight ahead.
It's wonderful to glimpse the process of your evolving still life and how you manage to keep the composition so fluid while it unfolds on the canvas.
Thanks, Donna!
Another great tool is a mat knife. Many a painting miraculously improves with cropping.
With "Green Jar", I used a prepared board, that happened to fit a frame. Perhaps it would be better for the integrity of the painting to not think about the framing. On this painting, I keep wanting to cut the painting @ at the silver pitcher, remove and replace the pitcher with something else- as it feels to me that there's a tug of war for the attention going on between the white bowl and the silver, too similar in size and placement. Since such drastic cropping is rather permanent, I'll wait and crop as a last resort, if I think that the painting can be salvaged. Right now, the picture looks boring to me, without a strong value pattern of darks on the left hand side to lead the eye around the picture plane. The silver with roses could- and maybe should- be a separate painting. I don't think it's playing the supporting role very well in this one. I'll wait and the answer will become more clear.
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