Thanksgiving

Last weekend I began sketching and collaging to come up with possible composition ideas. I want to make sure I explore ideas fully before I move to a canvas. From these explorations I started an under painting for a new painting.

For next week, I want to work on the painting I started this week and go back to the one with the cars. I also want to continue sketching.

Building, Stretching, and Gessoing ~ 2 hours

Sketching and Collaging ~ 5 hours

Painting ~ 2.5 hours

Week 11

Last Friday I started a new painting based on a image of my dad and I outside of our fence looking out at the street. I thought it could fit into my project idea as a loss of simplicity and easiness when you hold your dad's hand and nothing in the world could possible harm you. As I worked however I found that the composition and just everything about the painting was just not interesting. The painting went through many stages this week and with the exception of a small area on the bottom right I am completely not satisfied with what has happened. I have decided to put it down for a few weeks, so I can have some space and decide if it is worth moving forward with. This painting really taught me how important and essential more planning will be in choosing my subject matter for the rest of my work. I want to have much more sketching possibly both in drawing and paint before I start another.

This past week I also worked some on my first painting trying to put some finishing touches. I called it done and put it in the All Student Show on Monday. Although there are a few more things I think need tweaking, I also felt it just needed some space from it.

This first painting happened with much more ease then the one I started this week and I have tried to think about why this is. I think the subject matter is important. Although it is a Mardi Gras parade, the painting still gives a lot of mystery which I very much enjoy. As I think about home Mardi Gras keeps coming up. As a local and child, our Mardi Gras is very different then the one which is portrayed to the rest of the world. Instead its about family, friends, and fun. Its about the anticipation in the weeks leading up to Carnival. Its about the contest you have with your siblings and friends to see who can collect the most beads. I think the term The Big Easy, which New Orleans is often called, not alone applies to the city, but also this time in my life as I child when things were simple and fun. I want to explore the this ideas of how Mardi Gras can represent home because to me it really did define so much of childhood. After Katrina it was so important to all of us from New Orleans that Mardi Gras happened. There were comments from people around the country that we needed to focus on rebuilding and not on a party. They did not understand what Mardi Gras is to the people of New Orleans and how much getting back to normality really was. Having Mardi Gras gave us a sense of hope that everything could be alright again.

This week I want to explore this idea more through more thought but also sketching and starting a few new paintings. Yesterday in small groups it was brought up about working on more then one piece at a time. I  think this will help me a lot because when I get frustrated I will not have to keep working and working on the painting like I did this week but instead I can just work on another. All of the paintings being out and visible while I work can help me figure out problems in each of them because they are related.

Because I was frustrated with the painting I was working on this week I did a few quick sketches about me and my brother. I'm not sure exactly what they mean, but I definitely want to make sure I am sketching more about my project.

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I found an artist this week named Woody Shepherd who does work with landscapes and I just thought his work was absolutely beautiful and smart.
Woody Shepherd - Recent Works 2006-2007

Painting - 22 hours
Artist Research - 1 hour
Sketching - 1 hour

Week 10

This week I continued to work on my oil painting, spending the majority of my time doing so. I am at the point now where I just need to push and pull certain areas, thinking about exactly what I want to tell the viewer. I am really liking where this painting is going and I hope to finish it next week.

The following pictures are two drafts of it throughout the week the second being to most recent.

This coming week, I want to continue to work on my other painting that I put aside for the week as well as sketching more possible landscapes that represent home to me and starting another oil painting. 

Painting - 12 hours
Stretching Canvas - 3 hours
Writing Grant - 1 hour

Week 9

Painting 1 (22" x 32") - 9.5 hours

This painting is in oil and began based of one of the manipulations that I was working on. As I began working I really enjoyed where the painting was going without using the manipulation so I have moved away from it. This week I want to continue working on this piece, paying attention to brush stroke, color choices, and edge relationships.

Painting 2 (15.75" x 24") - 12 hours

I struggled with this painting a lot this week. Initially, it too was based of one of the manipulations.  I put down the first layer and afterward just put down the second. Because of this way of applying the layers at different times and not putting enough thought on how they would connect, they are very separate and the painting is not working. I have began to try and merge the two together as can be seen in the bottom left. I think there is potential here and this week I want to try and dig myself out of the hole that I created. I also want to start using oil paint on this piece because a lot of color is getting lost in the acrylic as I begin to unify the painting. Plus for some reason I think I am more aware of mixing color when I use oil paint.

Working on the both of these paintings and seeing both the successes and failures in each, I realize that I have been making things over complicated for myself. I want to begin to make more abstract landscape paintings that represent my different feelings and associations with home, something that I really enjoy and think is working in Painting 1.

This week Jim Cogswell shared with me a book on Pierre Bonnard and I am feeling very inspired by his work. The brush work and color palette/choices are beautiful and very smart. I really enjoy the figure ground relationship and how often the figures will fade into the background.