Gearing up for afternoon in the studio. Made it for a few hours yesterday. I used to feel hard done by only managing one day per week in the studio compared to a previous life years before but managed to turn that 'poor me' thinking around and realise how fortunate I am to even have one uninterrupted day to get heaps of work done.
It is very good to have a separate space to work in no matter how old and crappy. I think there is some sort of relationship between the 'new beautness' of a studio and the amount of work done in it. I've studied and then taught in many old ex army huts that served well as very productive and creative spaces. I have known people to have studios built for them only to never ever use the space as a studio because it wasn't to get dirty...ridiculous.The studios at my work place are now 15 years old. They are used on a daily basis and still look good because of the philosophy of leaving the space better than when you found it. Sort of like the National Park adage - take your mess with you and leave it as you have found it.
So for fear of realising I am procrastinating I will show the one work from yesterday.
It is always nerve wracking for me to go from the quickness and lightness of using acrylics to oils. It's been a method since art school to start to paint with acrylics because of the directness, the ease of working with colour in acrylic form, cleaning up with water, the ease of mixing - everything about acrylics I love.
I have never tended to start a work with oils because of the need to use solvent to get a work happening all over quite quickly. The water based oils are terrific and I'd say they will improve. I am happy using them and can combine them with straight oil paints as long as the proportion of waterbased oil is higher than the solvent based paint. I keep the analogy of an egg mayonnaise in mind.
But when I transfer to oils with these very small paintings because of the density and weight of oil colour I have to be confident because one needs to do the whole thing and bury what is already there in order to push the work.
The work above is the first session with the oils, I'm establishing the zones of tone and colour and there is much more to do.
Limbered up on the other five canvases this afternoon and can see how stiff I was with the first work. Now I can wait until the oil paint dries - in this weather it will be at least 4 or 5 days before I could put paint on the top again and will need to do it with fingers or a spatula rather than drag a brush across the surface.
Am following the sense of direction as per the actual sky I saw but as with any painting the paint is far more important to me than any silly sense of accuracy. The sunrise each morning is unique, we've all witnessed the sky in its magnificent mode whether morning or evening. These little paintings are literal enough. So I'm enjoying the accidental effects of tone and colour with late additions and reworking.
The sense of movement is very grand in this one.
These aren't finished. This image will have references to the ground in the foreground. Also colour is something to exploit in paint. I am using heavy viscous oil paint to capture a sense of the celebratory early morning light show - possibly counter intelligent but a great process.
If each of the little paintings has a different mood then I will be pleased.
This composition will have more detail in the foreground and a sense of looking across to other hills.
This will be loosened, the dollop of warm orange near the mauve shape has helped.
The blue in the foreground will be buried under more dramatic darker tones. At dawn everything is backlit by the sky so the trick is to suggest detail within a narrow band of dark cold colour.
