I am sad to say that not everyday in the studio is focused and productive… today was proof of that. One of the issues with working in oil paint is the time necessary for it to dry… (yes, the logical thing would be to work on two paintings at the same time and switch back and forth…but). What was planned for today has to wait a bit because my brush strokes were dragging my hand through surfaces that were still wet. Different colors of paint take different amounts of time to dry and Payne’s Gray takes a very long time to dry.
So many other things needed to be finish in the studio but the grayness of the day caused me to pull the blankets over my head and hide. I still have the list of things that need to get done today. But, instead of starting them at 9am as I had originally planned I am starting at 6 pm. So it will be a very long evening, as I slowly mark items off of my list.
The piece below is about 50% finished and as of yet it has not claimed a title. I am enjoying the process because it seems to be stretching across several dimensions of time: past, future and present. All of which seem to be interchangeable but in the end they join at the here and now.
I was looking over some of images from each phase of the painting and was able to see a pattern in how I move forward in a piece. I learn something interesting about my own creative process. As a general rule I prefer working in a larger scale. But the manner that I approach a piece is by breaking it down into smaller components and working on each individual part. Then when all of the elements are connected… the piece becomes one. Which seems very simple, but in the moment it informed me of my creative process differently. So it will be interesting to see how this painting will change with my new insight.
Date for this to be finish is March 1, 2013. I will keep you posted!
