Drying time...days!

Work in Progress.

I am waiting for these canvas to dry, so I can apply the next layer without disrupting, what is soon to be underneath. There are many techniques I have found over the years to build depth and 'patience' is definitely one of them! It helps that I usually have 4-6 canvas on the go at anytime, so I can work on 1 or 2 each day while the others dry.

The longer you can leave between layers, the drier and more stable the color you have applied. Additional coats change layers. Each layer a dimension of 'push and pull' in itself and then, how it relates to the existing layers... and on and on.....

Sometimes, I'll deliberately paint a second coat before the first is dry, so as to watch the interaction and the paint merge or blend. And, I love to see what effect gravity has over the paint, texture and fiber, pulling waves of color in a direction, movement captured in paint. That's what painting is to me, a visual record of the dialogue, between me, the canvas and my paints!

These both began as very light works but I have been exploring the 'shadow self' and it seems that is translating onto the canvas. There is still much light to be found among the shadows.

View in progress video

Once again, I'm repeating techniques in new ways. These works have a touch of my early 'Deep End' Series, with their Ultramarine glazing but painted in area's, not over the whole. There is a patchwork relationship in the overlapping layers and the original 'Deep End' pulp fiber, in the textured ground in both paintings. I think the next coat or two will consist of a little pigment (color undecided) and glaze. The above are works in progress still, but in the final stages, or so it feels right now. I haven't heard 'Step away from the canvas!' -yet.

'Australian Gold' is on her way to Miami!

I am pleased to say 'Australian Gold' has found her way to Miami, Florida.

I adore the lady who has purchased it. She has a couple of my works now and I can see a thread in this piece adding well to her collection. Her previous pieces that hold the energy of risk and reward. Each piece was a new style emerging within it's original series. An offshoot in a new direction. As with this one.

'Australian Gold' was born from finger painting and finished with a palette knife. The palette pushed and pulled and markings came and went. Always the reveal and conceal. This painting is step further along the palette knife path, than 'The Fog Series'. It doesn't stop at gestures and ephemeral markings. It layers and builds texture in places leaving peek-a-boo windows (a recurring theme in my painting) of the process intact, as a visual record of how each layer adds to the whole. . I added two final layers after I thought she was complete. The urge just comes and needs to be expressed, always at the risk of losing what is already apparent. This time in Zinc White and Australian Gold. I am glad I did. Below is the photo log of the various stages of her making. I don't always photograph each stage but in this case, I really wanted to. I hope you enjoy seeing the process. I wish I could keep them all.

'Australian Gold' (1st stage)

'Australian Gold' (2nd stage)

'Australian Gold' (3rd stage)

In a sense I can, vibrationally they all still exist as one, 'Australian Gold'

Fog

Sometimes you see clearer through a fog.You know the way 'black and white' can narrow things down, simplifying the hues in between and creating a clean cut shape of things. You might miss a few details but sometimes they are mere distraction. A gem shines brightly, you'll know it. I have been feeling my way through a fog of late. Literally and not so literally. Physically (Winter in a Valley) and emotionally (just putting down some roots) as always, the footprint of 'life' has been showing up in my paintings.

The Fog

My palette is quieter than late 2014's high energy, bold works (a time of great momentum and energy in daily life during this period) and the techniques have been based around a palette knife and not a brush. (Much easier for cleaning...bonus!)

Palette Knife

I have felt lighter in spirit, so whites were added. Zinc and Titanium, at different times, creating different layers of warmth and cold. I was feeling a little of that energy wise too. I was on or I was off. High energy or incubation. Those months were full of change, punctuated with adaption and chance. It fueled my creativity. I took risks with my overpainting in these works. For many layers some of the 'bits' didn't seem right but I didn't paint over them and now, some many layers more, it all reads together, as though that was always there just waiting to be discovered.

Detail of texture and overpainting.

A sculptural quality in my hands. Guided to remove or add in trust of what is building on the canvas. Feeling your way, noticing what beckons you to mark or stain or wipe away in some fashion. I'm always learning something. I've been 'feeling my way' through the Valley too. It gets mighty thick some mornings. Romantic but also in a way, 'eery', it's denser than I would have thought and the world around here is kinda damp right now. Which is good and nature is green as a result but it does change what you can actually see! It is also quite instinctive to hibernate.

A sweet young critic of mine recently commented this series represented the fog. I have to admit, it does and in so many ways. I painted them from the onset, with a 'do what you want to do for yourself' feeling and I did what I wanted to do, just because I wanted to do it just to please myself, no other agenda or theme for a show. It worked, they do please me. The more I digested of the world around me, the more I shared those feelings with the canvas in front of me. I think they read beautifully together. The colors reflect a lighter heart.

'Beauty in the fog' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

'The fog is lifting' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

The calligraphic movement is coming back in my wrist, making marks  of dance along the way, some staying visible, others  highlighted with further applications of white paint with a palette knife. Revealing and concealing over time. I worked through my emotions and saw  reflected exactly where I needed to stretch and grow. It's not always comfortable and it's not always pretty, but it sure is always worth it. The paintings are like my diary. I see them chronologically capturing the emotion of the period of time in which they were created. The series, 'Fog' was a time of sitting still and reflecting, being open and resisting judgement where possible and lots of letting go. I didn't always succeed but I feel I gave it a good shot. There is still at least one more canvas yet to be completed in the series Fog. There may be more.