April 12, 2012

A New Painting: "Twin Uprights" and the Zigzags That Show Us Where We are Going.

 Twin Uprights, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 5 1/8 x 5 inches.


I completed this painting last week before I went to New York, so I've had plenty of time to reflect on it. I like the way it's painted and the quality of light; I even like the composition. But...but...When I look at it alongside other paintings I've done recently, I feel uncomfortable about it. Then I began to think about the last painting I didn't like, Black Dot, which oddly enough is also primarily green.


Black Dot, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 4 5/8 x 6 inches.


I wrote a blog post on this work, which I titled "How Do We Evaluate Our Work?", which you can read here. In the post I listed some criteria that I hold are necessary for success. After finishing Twin Uprights, I realized that almost all my paintings have images that are frontal, with forms mainly parallel to the picture plane, which contributes to the "stripped down simplicity" and "strong sense of presence" that I aim for. I hadn't pinpointed the diagonal space of Black Dot as the source of my discomfort, but now with the additional example of Twin Uprights it seems to be the culprit. When I look at the next 8 paintings I have planned, they are all frontal, with enough variation in composition, form, and color to keep me interested and challenged. This doesn't mean I'll never try another painting with a diagonal movement into space, but I will be more aware of its difficulty for me. Of course, some of my readers might like both of these paintings; isn't art marvelously subjective!?


11 comments:

  1. Art is definitely subjective. I like the diagonal. This color of green is marvelous too.

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  2. Twin Uprights is, for me, a beautiful and very exciting piece - but I'm partial to close harmonies in greens, and to diagonals too I guess.

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  3. Thanks for the comments; I knew I'd get dissenting voices, and I appreciate them. It helps keep me open.

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  4. your paintings that are parallel to the picture plane may also use diagonals in the composition. In many great drawings I always notice the diagonal direction.

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    1. yes, I use many diagonals as part of compositions, but here they are describing a deeper space, which as someone pointed out made the objects more real; I'm trying to emphasize abstraction, hence the conflict.

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    2. Yes, Altoon, so are you trying to make a painting without depth as in your wonderful textile drawings?
      I guess this goes back to the realism vs. abstraction issue you have blogged about.
      Then is the depth/realism what you are "uncomfortable about"?

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  5. somehow i missed that previous evaluating-your-work blog & really liked hearing what others had to say about this problematic issue... which keeps cropping up, doesn't it. I'm pretty prolific because I really like working, but I've learned not to evaluate much, I just stack the drawings and let them be - until something strikes me that I want to look at more then I give it some attention. trying to decide right away if something is likable or successful seems like an unnecessary pressure. creating and evaluating are very different functions of the mind/ with different agendas... ideally there's a dialogue...
    and by the way I like both green paintings!

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    1. The issue certainly crops up constantly, rappel. How it works for me is that I usually mostly like what I do shortly after doing it (the two examples above are exceptions) but as time passes I weed out more work as it ages and my aims change.

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  6. Diagonal space seems to me to give a sense of catching a momentary glance - a snippet of time - whereas the frontal views are much more about confronting the formal light and design of the object. As you say in the comment above, you are emphasizing abstraction... the curious thing to me is that I never thought of the fact that the diagonal space seems more narrative to me. I can feel myself in the moment, whereas in the frontal abstractions, I'm not inside the picture, but outside looking at it. That was a cool thing to notice...

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  7. I second Rappel about not judging yr own work so immediately, Altoon. And I love the blues and greens here which create their own abstract beingness. As for the diagonal, working in landscape, I find that such a human movement. We are always taking the shortcut. So, not sure how that fits in...

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  8. thanks so much for the comments, Julie and Valerianna, each so interesting and from such a personal point of view. Everyone has been enriching my understanding of my work.

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