You are never really alone in your studio if you have an art blog and pose a question. I find this aspect of blogging so helpful. I appreciate the time my readers take to participate in any discussion that is prompted by my posts. My last post is a perfect example of contemplative input from my readers. I struggled with this painting to move it beyond an ordinary floral painting and provide something new for the viewer to consider. This intent drove me to break rules that are pretty basic in composition. Never lead the eye out of the top of the composition with strong vertical lines.There's always a but.... I drove the eye up to consider the aspect of daylight and the connection. I added textural elements with organic overtones to connect the daylight with the plant and its growth. My intention was to stop the eye with texture and move it around rather than out.
Don stated it very eloquently...
"I get the sense of the flower starting its day in its infancy growing thru the day into its glorious maturity at which point it suddenly shatters against the ceiling of its short lifespan. My last impression ends there, since nothing takes me back into the composition to show this cycle recurring. We only get one shot at life...
Do I leave it there or do I provide some hope for remaking ourselves? I'm torn.
While one particular daylily has a short life of glorious bloom and withers, they, like most plants, live through cyclical rotations and I love them for this passage of hope. I feel a need to provide a subtle route for the eye back down to begin the cycle of consideration again - through fiddling with the right top side.
I'm still toying with some dark webbing texture at the bottom of the painting.... it content v.s. composition. Time will tell. More hanging in front of my painting table and movement around the house.
Something tells me that this work will get a lot of consideration in the next while. I have a 24 x 36 inch board staring back at me and I'm scared by the 864 square inches of space. My largest painting to date has been 20 x 24. I'm challenging myself. Nothing's happened so far. Gesso would be a safe bet and a wash of yellow. How is that for commitment?
3 comments:
Margaret - I frequently experience the type of struggle you describe here, and sometimes you just have to go with your "gut." You can always paint in a change and than either eradicate it or paint over it if you don't like the change. Sometimes I do that and it helps to see it both ways. Good luck! I know you'll find a great solution.
Margaret, I am intrigued by your original painting and your alteration. The texture makes this painting very unique and I was fascinated by Don's interpretation. Good luck in sorting out whether you are done yet. I know that time away from the paintbrush and canvas usually brings resolution.
I am a firm believer - well fairly firm - that the painting shows you the way if you let it.
Sometimes it takes awhile, but the moment arrives when it happens.
I like the second version of this piece. Its as if there is a dream like quality with the background weaving itself around the leaves and inching towards the flowers. It makes me want to lean in and watch to see what happens next.
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