People always ask artists, "How long did that painting take to make?".
It is a hard question to answer. It is not just how long it took to actually cover the particular canvas with paint (which is what I presume people want to know), it is how you got there.
A painting is like the photos you took on your vacation, a record, a reminder of a journey. It is proof you were actually there.
This is a failed painting. It is loosely based on ideas from the August 4th doodle.
Usually I am the only person who sees my failures, like the photos that don't make it into your photo album. You know the ones, the one where people have their eyes shut, or the one where the tower on that castle is cut out of the frame.
Let me explain why this painting won't make it out of the studio.
I was trying for a strong central circular movement. I wanted the left side of the painting, from the bright green fern frond, to move your eyes to the right.
Then the swirly should catch the eye and move you down around to the other frond which would lead the eye back around to the left. Instead, the movement is strongly diagonal from the lower left to the upper right and out of the painting.
The lower right movement to the left is broken by the lower left corner, and the upper left of the painting is not strong enough to pull your eye back around.
I tried to compensate for the compositional weakness by painting the upper left the bright Cadmium Red Light, but it was too strong and pulled the eye straight up. By painting the leaves a brighter green, I could probably save the movement.
I will probably do it just to see what happens, but the basic composition of the painting is flawed. The painting is based on doubles, which is difficult to do well. It doesn't dance and flow.
I do like the way it is painted, the colors and that the embroidery is under the paint .
I spent 2 weeks painting a 40 x 30 inch painting no one should ever see.
All artists do it. We just do it behind a curtain. When we challenge ourselves and fail, we learn things that make the work we do show you better. Bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes it is really good for you.
I looked at this picture and i can see exactly what you mean looking at it this way up. Turn it around so the weak top becomes the bottom and it leads the eye to a strong fern top and the eye dances upwards with the intended swirl.
Posted by: Kate | September 19, 2010 at 02:26 PM