#4

(above, painting in various stages of progression)

For the second painting  in my series ( Churning), i continued to work with oil paint because i am interested in making figurative works and i really think oil paint is the best medium, that i know of, which allows one to capture the consistency of flesh. i really don't think my work would be as effective if  i had chosen another medium.
this time, i started off with even more heavier layers of paint to build up the weight of the figure and the meat. I felt like i was pretty successful with that  but could push it even further for the next one.  Working with more paint is something i think i am gradually getting comfortable with but still working on.  i also have been playing around with applying paint with the pallet knife subtly in the areas surrounding the figure. this approach was definitely out of my comfort zone.  i don't think i will do this for the next one because i don't think it worked really well for the piece. however it was me playing around and trying something new and i think that, as a learning tool is worthwhile.

above, what made it to critique.


Passionate...
is my adjective for painting and these works.  Going back to the fact that i approach   my paintings with spirit, i would say that  in the begining stages when i'm laying down the first layers and when the brush strokes are the largest really is a reflection of energetic spirit that i have for painting. i really get involved in it and lost in the movements that i make with my arms and i believe this shows up in the brushwork and even more so as i  have begun to paint on good sized canvases.

Furthermore, when it comes to my ideas, i  am interested in addressing the personal, and what goes on internally for people and bringing  intangible ideas, states, feelings ect. to the surface visually.  and i believe with  this series i'm just starting to examine how to do that;  I've only reached the tip of the iceberg it seems and that is a bothersome feeling but it's also humbling and a reminder that improving on my work will take time. the message i am working through with these pieces is growth and the transformation that is undergone to evolve. i've just seemed to figure that out recently and have realized that my most recent painting falls short  when it comes to content addressing such. i fear i left to much room for the viewer to form opinions but what i did find successful was that i was able to get some good emotional reactions from people in the critiques that i would hope for with this painting.
So i am still getting a grip on how to make the internal manifest visually in in a way that the viewer isn't left so confused. i must admit that i am not however interested in being so straight to the point that people get what i'm doing entirely... i do enjoy being a bit vague and ambiguous and feel that is important in my work.  the brain has a very hard time  with ambiguity and i think i would like to figure out how to address that  further at some point.

As far as the context goes. i am finding myself thinking into the future and wanting to pursue art based on how Alice Neel. focusing on really capturing people in portrait on the psychological level...how i perceive them, and working from life. i am thinking i would ask friends if each would be willing to work with me at least three times  a month... and just do it. Also interested in exploring ways to paint the visceral. i've come across The Gryllus, i believe they are  a husband and wife who work collaboratively. i am interested in experimenting with lighting, something do with their figures....and want to explore the landscape of the human form more similar to how they do.

http://www.bluecanvas.com/thegryllus?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dbb8ceef2bff4fa%2C0

A Portion of One Steak's Journey

Today i picked out another fine piece of beef for photo references. 

And set up a space, the hallway was the darkest place in my house in the afternoon ( working around model's schedule & timing for starting the piece)

(above) one candidate for the next painting. still have to go through the photos again to find which works best.

 man & meat... after the shoot back to the kitchen

My brother was eager to begin preparing  the meat for it's final decent into our stomachs...I'll let you know how it was.
No meat has been wasted during the production of this series.

Relating Well (assignment 2 cont.)

I found myself being able to relate my practice as an artist  in some way to all of the artists  that were suggested for me to look into. however, the two that i found myself relating to the most at this time are Rembrandt and Alice Neel.

One of the things i enjoy about Rembrandt's portrait above, is that its painted in a classical way but if ind the expression to be more expressive and less rigid as portraits of his time tended to be.

"Also notable are his dramatic and lively  presentation of the subjects devoid of the rigid formality that his contemporaries often displayed, and deeply felt compassion for mankind, irrespective of wealth and age."-unkown 

I feel like my work relates to Rembrandt's through the use of his imagery. like Rembrandt,  i have an interest in painting the figure in a representational fashion. i find the human form and experience deeply interesting and i feel like that interest can be seen  in his work as well. Furthermore, my interest in lighting that creates deep shadows and highlights can be seen in his work as well. Rembrandt's use of Chiaroscuro gives his paintings a kind of drama that i feel i am interested in as well (the portrait of the girl above exemplifies this).  In terms of how i feel i can learn from this Old Master, i think it goes back to paint application. i've probably mentioned this previously in other blogs but i really admire how you can see the texture and brushwork  of his paintings. this is evident in the portrait of himself at the top; the texture and movement created in the hair is beautiful, you can feel it fluffing about in the air. i feel like i should try to push those things in my work.

The second artist i feel i should mention is Alice Neel.

"Like Chekhov, I am a collector of souls... if I hadn't been an artist, I could have been a psychiatrist."

-Neel

 i can relate to Neel's vivacious interest in people. After watching her documentary i realized that Neel loved studying people just as i do and that interest in people fuels my own interest in painting the figure.  From what i understand she worked from life with her portraits, studying the individual and capturing what she saw. even though  i don't have the opportunity presently to paint from life all the time, one of the things i enjoy most as  a painter is studying the people in my photo references. Furthermore, the people that i paint are people that i have interacted with in my life; they are the people i get to observe on a frequent basis. Visually, i can relate my work to hers through her  lively color use as well, which can been seen in the her works above and below.

One thing that i feel like i should consider after researching Alice Neel is  how much do i want to capture  of the actual individual that i am painting. i guess it is making me consider the idea of trying to say something on a more individual level, something about their personality or situation in life through my expression as a  painter. i'm still thinking it out. its also interesting what the people you surround yourself with say about you, as an observer of them.

"Whether I'm painting  or not, I have  this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I'm  not working, I'm still analyzing people."- Alice Neel 

Artists to Fuel Cognition-assignment#2

Cecily Brown

Brown uses her process in her work by applying thick gestural layers of paint to address the combination of representation and abstraction of the figure(s); as well as the environment around them. this also adds to the sexual nature of her paintings because  the movement in her brush work  imitates the movement of the sexual activity she is portraying.

Soutine

Similarly to Brown, Soutine uses the medium to address his subject and bring it to life. here he uses the heaviness of the paint to convey the weight and fleshiness, or texture of the meat.

Rembrandt

After doing some research, i found that Soutine was inspired by Rembrandt's meat paintings.

 I Love this close up of his portrait. it allows you to see the texture Rembrandt used to create his portraits and demonstrates that the artist used a good amount of paint, left brushstrokes in tact, all the while creating figurative piece with an attention to detail. Rembrandt also made use of Chiaroscuro in his works. the theatrical lighting gives his paintings a more dramatic mood  and also brings more focus to the subject.

Jenny Dubnau

Dubnau's work is interesting because she chooses to take photographs of her subjects first and then  paints their portrait. this demonstrates that conceptually she is interested in photography, painting and their relationship  with eachother through portraiture.  this is indicated through her painting practice, in that she creates works that are highly photorealistic. 

"[...] the literalness of the photograph lends itself to a Realist approach; that is, an art that seeks to show, even if harshly, what is truly there, and to have that "truthiness"[...] provide the emotional springboard for the art."~Jenny Dubnau, a portion of her artist statement

http://www.jennydubnau.com/pages.php?content=statement.php&navGallID=Statement 

Alex Kanevsky

Kanevsky uses the subject of the nude figure to evoke an unsettling mood. he succeeds in doing so through his painterly approach with the medium; where by he gives the impression that his figures are fading away in their eerie existence. the layers  of the painting overlap; they can be seen through each other and even feel as if they run into each other, which also helps to push the mood and image of the figure merging with the surrounding painting.

 Alice Neel

Neel's interest in humanity and more specifically the individual person's humanity is reflected in the the way she paints her figures. her work is very psychological and from my understanding the degree to which she distorts the person's features, is used  to say something about how she perceives that person. her work is greatly expressionistic.

"I do not pose my sitters. I do not deliberate and then concoct... Before painting, when I talk to the person, they unconsciously assume their most characteristic pose, which in a way involves all their character and social standing – what the world has done to them and their retaliation."-Alice Neel

Alice is turning my Cogs

One of the artists that was recommended  for me to check out is Alice Neel. After looking her up on the Internet and looking at her art online ...weeks later...one of my family members was watching the documentary. so i found a seat on the rug.
 here's the link to the trailer:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8sPFpXakI0

Ready for the Chopping Block

Final piece ready for critique. I've noticed some areas that are awkward to me and others but over all I'm  content with this first piece and excited to get more feedback on it.

one of the questions that keeps coming up as  a painter who like to use photographs as references and likes to paint identifiable images... is why paint it when you can or even have the photo? it is a good sturdy question and one that i think will continue to come up for me. i am still learning how to articulate my answers and thoughts. and i am still figuring out this question. it took down this quote from a documentary on the painter Alice Neel; it has given me something to think about. yes! i feel like it captures how i feel a bit:

"The business about the difference of painting and photography becomes crucial in a sense that the photograph does capture somebody in a manner  which freezes that person in an instant; a painting never freezes in quite the same way, painting takes place over time. The mere fact that painting  is not a second arrested but is a relationship  of seeing, the seer and the subject means that painting  contains duration. When you look at a painting, you are seeing an extended moment happen not just time stopped which gives the photograph a somewhat more  morbid character and painting a less morbid one."

~Robert Storr, Dean, Yale School of Art

moving along

some growth and ungrowth..or more like growth in the wrong direction....gah. live and learn.

i got all excited experimenting with the background. my attempt at "letting go"  on Wednesday  was playing around with the pallet knife  in the background. i went a little crazy. the experiment went a wry; the colors were too bright, it had chaotic lines and the focus was no longer on my figure. definitely not what i wanted...but i'm glad i let myself just play around a bit, even though part of me felt like i had wasted valuable time, i still feel like  it was a good lesson of what not to do for these paintings. so i reeled myself in, painted over the mess and am in the process of creating something that works.

Bad idea shots

Blackberries & Steak

Blackberries have inched their way into my mind...i'm thinking i like them more than flowers. 

glorious boneless chuck roast

  A lot of times i feel like i can not find the images i'm looking for.yeah i can find  images of steaks on the web but it is so much more experiential to put the images together...have a friend model, or buy a juicy red steak to photograph.  building them myself and dissecting them visually  is a process that resonates. it is exciting for me to put together images and watch them evolve from a photos into flesh that is made by hand through oils; paints that are rather fleshy themselves...  

thoughts on the 30

Reflecting back on the 30 studies made for the growth series, i feel like the way i approached the studies did  not help me in the long run. i became to focused on my existing ideas  for compositions instead of focusing on  experimenting with the idea of growth and the human form. i felt like they failed.  however, i know there is something to be gained and that is never a failure.

the critique of these studies brought to my attention the issue of my imagery being too literal. this was something i was not consciously aware of and now that it is  in the future i can make a conscious choice to be literal or not. but for now,  the question and challenge on my mind is how to incorporate the figure  and the idea of growth without visually spelling out everything for the viewer? how do i pursue portraiture with this? keeping these ideas in mind, i am in the process of making adjustments to my original ideas  in order to work on being less literal. things i am considering further are: paint application...the movement i include naturally, being more gestural and painterly as mentioned before, unpersonified flesh as a thread in the paintings, different stages of plant growth, different kinds of plant symbolism, how the figures relate to other elements in the paintings, what emotions are evoked.

here are some artists i find interesting:

A portrait (above)  by Anders Zorn. what interests me  about his works is the heavy brush strokes found in his paintings; there is evidence of his hand and at the same time  fine rendering as seen in the face of the portrait. i find the artists Jenny Saville and Justin Mortimer interesting for the same reason. however they also depict subjects that disturb and create a mood of discomfort. having a slightly gothic nature, i am drawn to the macabre.

Paintings by Justin Mortimer above; a Saville below

Finally, there is one more artist i feel i should mention and that is Frida Kahlo.  Since i have started studying painting  i have had people tell me repeatedly that something about what i do  as a painter brings her to mind for them.  i believe that there is something in the kind of images that i come up with; they have a surreality to them, there is a story behind them and they are often rooted in personal experience.

think i just need to write

 this series comes from a personal space.  i think for me its mostly about sharing, maybe people will makes sense of the image as it pertains to myself, maybe not. they might find their own meaning in it. i am interested in what my art brings up for others as well as myself.  that is probably nothing new. i like that idea...if that makes sense.

 i am reexamining my ideas for  the growth series. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going.  but i am engaged and going...thinking. at this point i figure what I'm doing is portraits that have an element of unpersonified growth  to them.  I'm not sure if the series will  to focus on the  unersonified aspects more than the figure  but i do want to play with those to things together... we'll see as i go through painting them. With the paint in mind, I'm trying to let go and develop a more painterly hand. more gesture and thicker layers, while also maintaining  attention to detail.

I've started with the first one  and had a thought,  whether or not to make the meat stand out  from the figure through different lighting ( figures in the red light, while the meat in regular warm lighting) or have the meat  and the person in the same lighting scheme.... i will play around with this quality a bit more.
 progression:

some reminders for kate

Let go!


Let go of the literal.


You dont have to figure it all out now.


Let the paint say something.


Ultimately you can't control everything.


Try harder, push yourself.


Paint what you want.


Let Go!


...my brain hurts a bit. i am certain that is not bad.