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Monday, November 11, 2013

Out of The Trash

                          




Summer Shade #2, oil,  8" x 10" in progress.
The results of my forth session, (two of which you've seen), with this little landscape that I pulled out of the trash.  Not little to most of you, but smaller than I'm comfortable with.  I'm using my smallest brushes and I'm back to my original palette of primaries.  It needs to be grayed down a bit and the tree needs a swipe here and there, but the composition is there and there's hope.

I've learned over the last few days that I have to prep my knee for painting standing up; the way I go about it, painting is like exercise.  That means giving it a ten minute moisturizing massage first to loosen up the scar tissue so I can put in an hour plus moving about. After that, the knee needs icing.  In spite of the care,  I am  learning a lot painting with an eyelash and my little finger and I am glad to be back in the studio--even if it's just for a short time.  :-))  

24 comments:

  1. I like this a lot, you are definitely on the right track. It got an abstract feel and I like how you keep areas solid, but with a lot of variation and values, that makes it lively, but not too busy.
    I hope your knee is getting better and that you are too.

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    1. My first color instincts were the best. The whispy subject matter--grasses--counter acting the solid trunk of the stree threw me. When I look at a tree I see a sculpture with intriguing forms and lines and cross sections--the stuff painting doesn't really capture. I think that's why I went to the dark neutrals to figure out which lines and dots attracted me. I should have done that first. Having done it, I went back to the colors---and I can't help it, but I see them brighter and more lively than in reality. The woods is a beautiful place.
      As far as the knee is concerned, it seems the knee experts lure you in to the surgical fix with talk of a short recovery. Yes, my knee is doing great, but it still feels foreign and needs some nuturing. I can walk well and I am working to increase the time. I think this is going to take a year to feel normal rather than the nine weeks to twelve weeks I was told--of course, it's nine weeks today, so they have another three to be right. By then I won't care. I'll be swimming in the Caribbean come hell or high water. Now let's not talk about it any more. I am an impatient patient.

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  2. I wish you would not trash anything! It's not the first time you mentioned dumping paintings you don't like. Artists are their own worst critics. Summer Shade, even in progress, is wonderful! I also agree with Roger. Hope that knee is doing well.

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    1. I don't really throw them away; I throw them aside to look at after a period of seperation. Painting is a lot like writing. What you dash off initially, always needs refining and correcting second and third and even forth read through. There is a time, however, to let the piece go as is. I haven't discovered when that is yet. Knee's a subject best put behind me . Time will take care of it.

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  3. I agree with the others - an excellent save! We often tend to be too harsh with ourselves - we fail to see the positives in a painting. Glad the knee is behaving itself - well sort of with the right treatment!

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    1. I don't know about being too harsh--maybe we're just being demanding? Maybe we are reaching for a level of achievement we don't see there yet? I think that trait is in the artist's job description.

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  4. I very much like your primaries palette! It is a wonderful colorful summer painting and I hope you don't gray it down too much. All the best for your knee!

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    1. Very few paints on the palette this time. Only the basics, but I am missing the vividness that acrylics offered. It seems the same color in oil is duller than the same color in acrylics--like Dioxinine Purple. But I'll work it out. Please lets forget the knee. I talk about it, but it's getting to be a drag. On with painting!

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  5. Agree with Judy about not greying it too much. The colour is joyful, playful, the painting draws me in to explore more. Love it.

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    1. I not going to gray it at all for real. I say for real for I think I like graying down colors by intermixing strokes of their complimentaries on the canvas so that the view's eye sees them together as being grayer--think Seurat's dots. Under the influence of VG's paintings these days, that was his method of graying also. Reading his Letters to Theo, my first impression is the man was highly intelligent and knew what he was doing. He didn't handle disappointment well. A turned down marriage proposal marked a change in his attitude. Like with most of us, rejection was painful, BUT IT DIDN'T STOP HIM FROM PAINTING.

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  6. Dear Linda I'm late because I ...went grandmother and mother, in the last 24 hours!
    All friends have already written everything that I fully subscribe!
    This summer is fantastic and deserves to live, colorful and shining,
      until the end!
    Warm hugs,Rita.

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    1. Thanks Rita. I proclaimed it done as you see it. This photographic rendition is brrighter than the original. I've noticed in translating paintings with reds and blue in nearly equal proportions, the computer has a color problem--the translation comes out either too red or too blue. When I looked at the painting today, it looked fine. It was seeing it in this venue that made me think I should gray the thing down.

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  7. I like what you have done. The painting looks terrific.

    This size is really little to me, too. But it is perfect for building stamina and definitely makes for more portable paintings.

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    1. It sure does! Thanks.

      I'm not toting oil paints anywhere. They are messy. I need a whole roll of toweling to keep me clean and I'm forever wiping my brushes, which are destined to be replaced often. I like to scrubble with them. My working process is the worst. Totally disorganized and unprofessional. Totally intuitive and spontaneous. My ability came with me into the world. All previous attempts at harnessing it, training it, has always caused rebellion. Drawing is articulate, tedious and rewarding, but uptight and static. Painting is a joyous activity where mistakes are as welcome as accidental drips and any drawing ability shows up on the canvas automatically. I'd like to keep it that way.

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  8. one of my favorites of yours!! It has a very fresh quality--like it was painted on the spot! Glad your knee gets better and better!

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    1. Thanks Celeste. It was painted more or less on the spot . That spot is in my yard. I know it my heart. :-))

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    1. Thanks Linda. There's a lion in there somewhere--or maybe just a deer?

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  10. Oh Linda! You have come through all this knee pain and trauma and I never once came to support you. So sorry, life has been a little awkward of late - I've been surrounded by death & destruction ....balanced by the arrival of our 4th generation!.

    Your work bursts off the screen, so vibrant and exciting. Untamed talent roaring out!! WooHoo! Go girl, Go!

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    1. Working on it. Life is full of death and destruction, the trick is to keep your eye on that forth generation--and the third--and always the second.
      Any paint that's on canvas is a success these days. I don't know about bursting off the screen, it's a quiet little spot of shade of tranquility. It should burst off anything.

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  11. I laughed when I read your reply to John - "any paint that is on canvas is a success these days". How very true - but your little landscape, no matter what you decide to title it, strikes me as filled with the forces of nature. It may be a tranquil spot but you have masterfully abstracted the essential qualities to show us the bare bones of reality. I love it.

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    1. Thanks Susan. It's true. Just getting down to the studio and putting paint to canvas is an accomplishment. One hour is all I can do before I've got to ice--but that's a half hour longer than it was two weeks ago. Progress is being made. You had a slump and were reading Degas. I've got a slump and I'm reading Van Gogh. It's Van Gogh who pushes me down those stairs. I can read only a couple of pages before I must hold a brush and slather paint. The colored plates of his work are gorgeous and his letters to Theo are even more inspirational.

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  12. Summer shade is beautiful, Linda...glad you pulled it out of the trash... I LOVE the brilliant colors...outstanding blues....

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    1. Thanks Hilda. Even in its worst state, I did think the painting had potential. I had rushed the color before establishing a composition. You need a plan. Once I had one, I could proceed. The blue is just Ultramarine and a tad or two of Dioxinine plus Titanium--maybe a dash of Paynes and Alizarin crimson? I fuss around. :-))

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