More on Painting

I am definitely confident about the lying low for a bit, as far as attempts at physical public showings (mostly UAG). It is funny: this past December, I picked up the list of shows and deadlines for 2009 and started to circle those which might have interested me, the first being the show starting Feb 6, and I realized that I started a few but had no time to complete them. And I also realized, that is no way to do art. Glad I don't paint on commission. I would likely hate that.

Oils kind of put me in a place where I am not in a rush to finish. I will sketch out the piece, recopy the sketch on canvas (mostly wood with acrylic gesso base), and then paint. And then I will get to a point where I am either tired, or have done enough and the paint needs to dry before I can work on it again, or I want to sit back and let the piece sink in , and then I will start something else. This is not to say I don't finish any. I do, especially if I have a self-imposed deadline (e.g., it's a birthday gift). But I have about five or six unfinished paintings lying around. One of them has been sitting around since September (the redhead in bed piece.

Today, I started a new piece...don't have a title of it, but it's a gender role reversal. The artist is a woman, and the guy is hanging around...nekkid, reading, smoking, relaxing. Got the background done and some flesh color for the subjects, but it will require some work. One thing I noticed, I am not very dexterous...not good painting small objects, figures.

Another piece is going to be called "Darkness Visible," and it will be a part of the redhead series. It too had been sitting around for a bit...a few weeks. The photo function on the computer is not working, so I can't share it, but it's a blue bed, a dark green nightstand, greenish yellow walls, and a figure sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, her back and red hair to us. Most of it done with brushes, except the hair, which I used a thin pallette knife. I want to capture the isolation of depression.