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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Beginnings and GE


What the start of "Chocolate Cannoli" sort of looks like. The background is more a pale yellow buff.
This is closer, but a lot bluer. I guess it's difficult to accurately show the actual beginnings of a painting.
But now you know I lay in the ground first,then draw with paint. For some odd reason
 I chose yellow ocre and alzarin crimson. 
I reached Good Enough for now with Banana Cream Pie and hung it on the
observation wall to live with it over the weekend.
I love beginnings. They are always full of promise. It's the middles where things get complicated. The painting takes on a life of its own and you either follow its directions or screw it up. And the end? The finish? Never. It doesn't exist. I'm constantly growing, constantly changing. So what feels finished to me at one time, isn't finished a month later.

The spacing between the panels needs to
be two inches, not three.  The over all size
with then be  30" x 34". The nails were placed
to accommodate another multi-panel painting.
 Over the last year, I've been finding unfinished paintings fascinating. They still have life. Some of the canvas still shows through washes. Some of the canvas is as pristine as it was when the painting began. Instead of heavy layers everywhere closing all the doors, dotting all the I's, boxing the subject in, let the subject breathe. Let the viewer finish it off in her imagination. Life is never finished. There's always one more thing to do up to the end.

I won't be able to leave my pastries unfinished. The first one set the pattern. What you see here is the beginning and as the process goes on the painting will get tighter and tighter, till it's nailed down as tight as the other two.

 I started the third panel during my morning session and made room for the three on my observation wall. I immediately noticed that Mice, hanging together with Banana Creme Pie, needed adjustments. It was too blue; It's now a bit rosier--and my added brush strokes are a bit looser. I imagine there will be more adjustments of this kind next week. I'd like to finish these panels by the workshop. For knowing me, I'll be stepping back into portraiture to absorb everything I intend to pick up. --But as yet, no word from them. The clock is ticking.

22 comments:

  1. Great triptych guaranteed to induce excessive salivation from any house guests.

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    1. Not at my house Mick. You're out of luck when it comes to gooey desserts if I invite you to dinner. I only paint them. Don't eat them. Too sweet. --They do have an added strength. Not only do the colors appeal to sight, but the images also spark the taste buds and memories of aromas. They are poisonous you know.

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  2. I was just viewing your post when I got your comment on mine in e-mail. How's that for a wavelength?
    I'm blown away by your process and just love seeing how these images come to life. Your comment about life never being finished is intense because it's true. I too love beginnings and find the middle more complicated. It's good to know that someone as talented as you has these feelings.
    I see lots of possibilities for these pastry paintings- commercial and residential. They have a wonderful appeal- graphic, lively, artistic, FANTASTIC!

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    1. I don't know about you Pam, but I do know on my death bed I'll have one more thing I have to do before I go:-)) We all love life; and we all want more of it.

      Why commercial? Everybody says that (one friend actually). Why not the dining room or the kitchen? Fruit bowls and flowers are no different than pastries with their gorgeous colors.

      Loved your strip. Very sweet talented lady.

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  3. I agree, beginnings can be so amazing. Sometimes one wants to stop, cause it looks so awesome. Only problem is that the brush strokes were not made as it was the final strokes....

    Good luck with the last panel, looking forward to see it all together....

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    1. No problem for me. I think the signature of those initial brush strokes are as close as you're going to get to the heart of the artist. After those, the artist removes herself as technique and finish becomes all important.

      Thanks, but it's going to roll off the brush. I can feel it. My genius is in the studio:-)

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  4. I am happy to see your creative process!
    Life moves on these works of art.
    The beginning, with all the possibilities, the progress I see in the posts, the final accomplishment that comes ...
    Your desserts look also be part of some 'of my day. Thanks Linda for sharing HERE
    your art and your passion for life!

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    1. My process isn't much: paint to canvas, no pencil drawing first. I've done that and during the painting process (which is all drawing to me), it falls apart as the painting and brush strokes start making their own demands--push and pull, push and pull. Thanks Rita. Hugs.

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  5. You asked, "Why commercial?" When I go out to dinner in various restaurants, I look at the art. The trendier restaurants have large canvases of art of cooking/food scenarios that are usually quite intriguing. I could see your pastries fitting in that arena.
    However, I completely agree that they will be lovely in any home! Someone will be very lucky to own them.

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    1. No I can see its commercial value--particularly to the restaurant where I took the reference photos. I just don't understand why sweets differ from fruit in the dining room, kitchen? Are we Americans so suggestive that a picture of sweets sends us off on a sugar binge? Ye gads!

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  6. These are coming along great, Linda!! Your post is very powerful today! It's nice to see where its going...I can't wait to see the third panel..it boggles my mind how much patience you have!! Great work!

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    1. Thanks Hilda. Me too. Hopefully this next week. I do have to adjust those nails for the right spacing (I was a space designer; inches count)--but my husband loves the five piece painting I have there. Maybe he love the money I could see it for better and I'd get my wall back to do as I please?

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  7. Hi Linda
    Your photos remind me that I am hungry. Past 11am I've only had tea. Love your work, Ev

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    1. Thanks Ev. It's always nice to see your post on my side bar. What's your warm up going to be today? I'm going straight to the watercolors. A little splashing around in the AM puts a smile on my face before I face the easel. I really suck at wc though. No patience for friskets and rules. I'm a paper wrecking mess maker at heart. Thanks for commenting.

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  8. I always love your pastry work - masterful! Excellent! Very good to see the stages.

    I have a several year old unfinished painting of pears in acrylic. It was when I picked up acrylics after a several year absence, only to put acrylics down for several more years. I didn't like it only because it was based on someone else's painting - the composition was not my own. But the style is. My wife has threatened to throw it away several times, but never has. But it looks really cool that way - unfinished. It is in our dining room, leaning against the wall.

    Man, when was the last time I commented? I think it was before the potato chips that look like cream pie. But I've been reading daily. I snuck into the computer just now because I can't let more posts go by! Happy creating!

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    1. So your wife what? Had to visit the powder room and left her seat at the computer? Poor Dan having to lurch in the shadows watching for an opportunity to swoop in and dash off a post, a comment or two. I'm honored I got one of them.

      Unfinished has charm and poetry, not always upbeat. My brother in-law painted Girl with the Earring with pastels, just before he checked out (own hand). He never finished--but got far enough into it where it is clearly the Vermeer's girl with the pearl. There's something quite compelling about his unfinished rendition--sort of like his choice not to finish his life. I should ask my sister in-law for it.

      I have Rain sitting in a corner waiting for my attention, but I'm about to obliterate it. The subject was too poetic for me and the photograph I took was excellent. Honey isn't allowed--nor does he want to--spend any time in my painting room. It's way too creative in there (messy) for him who has nothing on his desk but his laptop. Boring. Out of chaos comes order/albeit art.

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  9. Nice work, Linda..
    I don't know what it is cooking or painting?
    You are so creative in every way.
    And I understand that your painting has still life when the canvasses are washed!!

    Greetings from HOT Greece!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Greetings from hot Michigan--but not quite as hot as the rest of the country. Thanks Monika.
      You would know the difference if you saw them, not exactly Tromp L'oil. I loved your post on youth and age. Wonderful poem by Blake.

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  10. Lovely to see the beginning of a painting and how artists go about the process. I enjoy following your progress in all your work.

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    1. I have no special procedure Ann. --Paint to canvas all the way. A pencil stroke is entirely different than a brush stroke, I don't mix the two on canvas --only on paper and then it's pen over paint if needed. For me, painting is a spontaneous reaction.

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  11. I also thought of commercial use for this.

    Why not home? I think because it is such an incitement to sweets, not what typical person needs at home?

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    1. So fruit still lifes are more appropriate for home decor than cake? Why is that? Fruit is good for you? Cake is not? We tend to under indulge ourselves with fruit,but over indulge ourselves with sweets. Not me. Chips is me (salt). Perhaps a poignant title is required? I've thought of several: Choose your poison; What'll you have?; The Melon or Cannoli?; Sweet Choices, Hidden Consequences; Sugar Rush...I'll keep thinking. Meanwhile I'll contact all the restaurant designers I know and bakery and sweet shop owners too: Paintings Looking For A Home. --Beginning with the one in Greek Town where I took all the reference photographs.

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