Well, I went back to the easel tonight and at close of day the lady on the right is now gone. Foliage has replaced where she was, the lake is resuming where she was, and the sky and clouds are falling into place where her face was. It is very hard – unnerving – to make a decision like I have while this far into a piece, but I think I did the right thing. I liked the image of the women and may repeat her another time. She just didn’t belong here.
I love the idea that someone can walk into a room and immediately see the problem with a painting that I have been staring at and can’t see. My husband can often do that “extra eyes” for me and that is exactly why I put this painting out here for comment.
BRAVO for two of my viewers for commenting and helping me see what was wrong with the painting.
To test their observation, I quickly pulled the jpg into the software program PAINT and by snipping and copying bits of surrounding image, mocked what the painting would look if I painted out the tall woman on the right. Yes, I agree. THAT was what was bugging me as well.
Thank you for your “New Eyes” — I will head back to the easel this evening to do it with real paint. Onward!
This is a tricky part of any painting. Now is when I need to stop and decide if this painting is complete or if there are little things that will haunt the viewer (or me) so it becomes more about scrutiny than painting. I keep walking away and coming back to it because that’s when I see small errors here and there. It is fixing those that I consider fine tuning.
But let me take a step back and let you know the history of what you’re seeing so you can consider the work in context. This painting is what I refer to as a suggested commission. Translated, that means that I was asked to paint a piece with a list of criteria with the possibility of fulfilling the expectations and directives of the patron. I am not selling the original but publication rights. Unlike a flat-out commission where the patron and I enter into a contractual agreement and half of the agreed on fee is advanced to initiate the beginning of the project, I have painted what was suggested by the patron with mutual hope that they might pick it up. If it isn’t what they want they can just say no.
My directive for this painting from my patron included the following:
a camp scene…in daylight….prefer women…even include children – that would be good…. early 1800 might be good – we could use more regency time-frame.
My thinking process (and even articulating this becomes a work in process):
Camp in the remote sites of the northwest territories are energetic, transient towns (as are the re-enactments of those camps) and they thrive on the aggregation of people from vastly different cultures, ethnicities, and sensibilities. Nowhere is the seamless blending of cultures more evident than in the community of women. Fiercely determined and loyal, we share many bonds: of burdens in both the communal and individual work; of roles as wives, mothers and business partners in these aggregated societies; and even of shared appreciation and empathy for our sisters with regard to everything from material culture to levels of gender respect or status. Occasionally, this undercurrent flows as a barely noticed society within a camp’s social network. However, in camps then and now, women assemble in small, comfortable groups to laugh, to share, to nurture and to build community, generation after generation.
I have been away from the website for a while but time away from my blog in no way reflects time away from art. Away usually means I am: thinking more than painting, problem solving, or gathering visual fodder by traveling or researching. It might also be that I am focusing on personal matters that need my energy and full attention. In this case, I have been in the process of re-accessing the scope and direction of my work, AND have personal matters that need my attention.
Today, however, I stayed at the easel most of the day working on a commission due soon. That piece is fun to work on and in line with my recent historical scenes. To add to the playfulness of the work, a couple of the figures will resemble friends. I will put it up for you to see when I can.
What has been on the back burner — and that burner was turned up during a recent travel adventure — is a new series that will reconcile my love of working small with subject matter not traditionally expected. Looks good in my mind so I am about to move forward with it. If you’re interested, stay tuned.
What a busy time it has been these last 5 weeks. I have been highly focused and hard at work in both of my loved professions, doing all that I can to avoid neglecting either one, and actually doing my very best to raise the bar instead. Balance is never easy but I am holding my own and managing to find some successes in each, bringing me a great deal of joy along the way. Continue reading “Quick capture reveals a relaxing core.”
Recently, I had an opportunity to talk to someone about some of my larger scale work, primarily murals. One of the murals was a 36 foot wrap-around, Midwestern landscape painted on a garage. It was fun to do and utilized the trompe l’oeil method of softening the line between real and illusion. Meaning fool the eye, it is playful and challenging. Further conversation encouraged me to share just a few of those large scale works with you here, so you can now find a new page listed on the right side menu called “Murals plus”.
I also added a few more sketches to the journal, In the Garden. They are merely little illuminated watercolor pictures done on site, in my garden. Feel free to browse the site – and have fun.
This week I decided to take a break, step away from the paintings on the easel, and do something for myself. This is a portrait miniature representative of traditional late eighteenth century style. It is watercolor on ivory (old piano key) with a sealing varnish of DaMar. The painting style does not model strictly after that taught at the Philadelphia academy but is vaguely reminiscent of regional influences. Of course the smiling countenance is purely this artist’s prerogative. The subject is my husband. Enjoy.
I have had a busy week and no time at the easel until today. Compounding this, sometimes it is hard to get going when I am distracted by all of the usual demands of the day to day still lurking in my mind. But I finally got down to work and some of the slight detail issues in the face are beginning to settle. I started to work on the hands a little today too.
Technically, it is dangerous to focus on one area of a painting and let others languish like I have been doing with the hands. Color palette can drift, detail can be different from area to area, the whole painting can loose continuity. Let’s hope I can avoid these pitfalls.
I hope you’re having fun…I am.
Not every day is fruitful. Not ever session spent at the easel is as fruitful as others. I worked on the face today and made a little progress forward and see a few things now I need to fix. Sometimes life pressures get in the way of faster progress but that is all part of the process too. Another day might be better.
Kelly E. James 