Finished Paintings… and 3 New Shows!
It’s been a busy, busy week. I needed to complete some of my current paintings for a new one-person show that I hung last night. I also was just accepted to be a member at an artist’s cooperative gallery, so I’m hanging there tonight. In addition, I already had a show up at another place downtown. If you are in Portland, please check out my shows page for details on the locations.
As usual, my favorite paintings of my collection of works are whichever ones I just finished. And.. as usual, whenever I get on a creative roll, I always wonder about the time I spend struggling with my creativity. At this moment, I feel like I have hundreds of paintings waiting to get out, which makes it difficult to comprehend the times that I feel at a loss for what to do. Here’s the completed “Songbird” painting:
I also finished the other painting that I spoke of in my last post.
What made this painting come alive for me was when I started adding the dots and dashes to the background. Interestingly, this idea came about in a very happenstance manner. There was a small dark speck embedded in the plexiglass, located over her left shoulder. Since I couldn’t wipe it off, I decided to add something in the background that would camouflage it (where the background is the darkest). I started adding dots of color there to add some interest, then ended up following through with dots and circles that got progressively larger as I continued down the panel. I then decided to add vertically dashed lines above the horizon, which emphasizes the vertical flow of the larger blue-green drips. Now the drips more specifically related to the idea of rain, so I decided to call the piece “Day of Rain”. I felt that the title completed the piece because it ties together the idea of rain bringing flowers. The oddity of a nude woman standing in the rain adds an edge to its poetic sensibility, I feel.
Hi there Robin,
This is Monica from montreal,Qc Just reading your blog and appreciating your art and your expression of the journey and stuggle of the need to create and feel that there is a quantitative pressure for output, aswell as originality and discovery of something new and revelatory within ones own work.
Its an ongoing …all consuming passion…this need to paint
Take care
and keep painting.
Monica
Thanks so much for your input on the creative process, Monica. Your own work is such a lovely testament to the internal fire that artists traverse through. I’ve always enjoyed your paintings very much!
Robin,
my name is Mark Gallegos, from Central California, I enjoyed your paintings; the forms emitting from “Song Bird’s” beak and the heart of the figure in “Day of rain” seem to be reminiscent of Mesoamerican and Native American “song scrolls” (link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Monte_alban_stela01.jpg) which occur in many examples of petroglyphic, ceramic and painted formats.
I am just curious as to whether your application was inspired by these ancient examples or if yours was an intuitive manifestation derived through a course of problem solving in you effort to visually depict “beautiful sounds”.
In either event the forms suggest beautiful or inspiring sounds coming (in one case) first from the reality of birds “mouth” and then the idealized song coming from the “heart” of the rainy day figure; her’s appears to be the heartfelt interpretation of the “real” flower she holds in her “left hand”.
My interest is in the enduring “Reality” of “Art” which, I believe, spans the history of Humanity and bonds us to one another in past, present and future experiences, this is the foundation through which I define “Art” as a “Declaration of (human) Recognition” which characterizes our Humanity.
While most artists refuse to define “Art”, I believe that its enduring properties and purpose should be recognized, taught and preserved through the conscious effort of those who proclaim to be “Artists”; there is only one “Art” that applies to all, “The Art of Humanity”; and it shines wonderfully through your paintings. If you wish to respond feel free to e-mail me @ marc34me@hotmail.com.
Keep up the good works, Mark.
Hi Mark, and thanks for that wonderful comment on my paintings. I’m always interested in the ongoing relationship between the contemporary and history of art, though I was not familiar with the MesoAmerican
“song scrolls”, I think it’s not uncommon for artists of different times to create similar themes, especially ones as universal as “sound”, and “song”. I’m sure it’s something I will continue to explore.