Spiral, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 4 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches.As I work on this series of small paintings, I have been exploring approaches to picture making that are familiar to abstract painters but new for me. Instead of thinking of the representation of a particular object in a specific light, I am trying to use value, hue, shape to bring a composition to a convincing balance. I realize that the work still looks "realistic" but my feeling during the painting process has shifted slightly. In this painting I changed the hue of the greens, invented the color of the spiral, left out some unnecessary detail at the bottom, and added a dark rectangle at the lower right. I would like the painting to be its own world, solid, complete, with no need of outside reference.
The spiral could be moving left or right! I like that.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting observation, arothman, one I hadn't considered. I guess I saw it moving left, to the smaller portion.
ReplyDeleteI really like this one, Altoon. Works as an abstraction--but i also love the sensitively modeling of the spiral ridges.
ReplyDeletethinking of abstraction - but the dark rectangles at the bottom tie the painting to realism, they're holes, they don't live on the surface with the pipe but are oddly irrelevant to them.... to my eye anyway.
ReplyDeletethanks so much, Susan.
ReplyDeleterappel, I first painted the bottom of the painting with the details of little tabs, but painted them out because they didn't work. I then painted the bottom part as a flat area, but that didn't work either; it had no interest or rhythm. Then I ended up with the dark rectangles, which I think work with the vertical green shadowed shape. That was my thinking and working, anyway.
Your desire to have the painting exist in its own world, without outside reference makes me think of the hooked rugs you've been creating--they too seem to seek that balance of value, hue and shape you're looking for. Are the forms in the rugs a jumping off point for this series? I am loving the painted articulation of the spiral, its lights and darks.
ReplyDeleteHannah, the hooked rugs have definitely influenced my paintings these last few years, less a jumping off point than a conversation.
ReplyDeleteand rappel, to enlarge on my response to you, I am still interested in illusion, obviously: the spiral is a round volume, there are planes one in front of another, there are holes.
I know that I keep focusing on shadows but it's interesting how the shadow of the spiral creates a wonderful negative shape between it and the spiral itself. The bumps of the shadow fit nicely between the ridge of the spiral. The viewer is ultimately compelled to carefully take the trip through. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI like that shadow too, ski, its nice decorative scallop. The trick was to get the color right so it would read as light and shadow.
ReplyDeleteJust find it very exciting to "watch" your process shifting, maybe towards "abstraction." Existing in its own world is a bit hard to achieve, eh? Even that desire is shaped by outside forces...
ReplyDeleteJulie, of course nothing exists without some kind of reference to culture, memory etc. I simply meant in the case of my painting, without needing a reference to an actual physical object.
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