December 9, 2012

A New Painting: "Pink Planes"


Pink Planes, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. 


After finishing my new series of drawings, which you can see here and which gave me so much pleasure in the making, I questioned whether I would continue to make representational paintings. Working on this painting made me answer that query in the affirmative. I still find it very satisfying to capture the illusion of form and depth and light on a two dimensional surface, to play with the making of form so that it has a tactile presence. It is like magic, the painting equivalent of an illusionist. Each of my varied activities––textiles, hooked wool drawings, cardboard and potato prints, and now drawings; and of course photography and blogging––explores a different range of thought, each fascinating to me. It is as though I am finding different personalities within myself; perhaps I should have unique names for each, as the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa did in his varied writing activities, calling them "heteronyms".


Pink Planes, detail


But no, I will stick with my own name and hope there isn't too much confusion as to what I'm about. Which, in this detail, you can see is an attempt to have a fresh and fluid application of paint within precise limits, and color shifts to describe sunlight, translucent shadow, and reflected light. It's always a challenge to achieve, and always worth the effort.


7 comments:

  1. Using words to effect composition of bodies of work within ones entire output, a mental structure and organizing principle that will become evident with time

    "The seasons of painting will over time become patterns of living and vice-versa.

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  2. Altoon,
    Each of your activities informs the others, and we are all so much the richer because of your explorations.

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    1. I agree! I feel no confusion at all as to what you are about in your work; everything seems connected, communal.

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    2. thanks Ravenna; it's good to know that it all seems connected.

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  3. Thank you , Steven and Tamar, for your supportive comments, much appreciated.

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  4. Altoon, with respect to your own parameters, maybe this is one of your most successful in that it is so fresh and so simple, and yet it has such nice depth too. It's a favorite of mine for these reasons. I loved that drawing series BTW too - thought I had commented on #3 from that post, but if not that was the one that grabbed at me.

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    1. Thanks so much, Mona. I'm so glad you like this painting, and the drawings too.

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