The roll of fox paintings was interrupted by my husband's gall bladder surgery. On Saturday the day after surgery he did well. We enjoyed a brief visit from daughter Melinda, Mark and Madisen being available in case we needed anything. We sure appreciate their love. As the days passed he could not sit around and constantly he was on the go giving me time to paint.
The fox is not visiting the dry field however.
Furthermore many of my observations were about violent encounters of wildlife.
Doing more violent paintings has no inspiration for me after the mass shootings last weekend.
Working in the flower garden before my husband's surgery was an obvious starting point for new paintings.
One catalyst for creating something new is making connections between unrelated things. Making a visual connection between absurdities.
I found a used surface - a partially finished abstract watercolor started in Ruth Armitage's workshop on Approaching the Abstract.
I set up in my front yard where I could be inspired by our flowers. Even if my husband has a different aesthetic for the flower garden cleaning up my preference for a jungle garden, I could at least paint a jungle like Henri Rousseau's "The Dream".
Only "The Dream" is 6' 8 1/2" x 9' 9 1/2". The forms in the large painting compressed to my small 12" square surface became a challenge more difficult than my ability to render. I first painted the nude in the water departing from Rousseau's. The abstract pipe cleaner marks like water in a stream became more dominate in the painting than "The Dream" and my flower garden. I decided to play with the nude in the stream.
The lily at center took away from the flow of the stream. With some paint thinner on a rag I easily removed the lily. Removal was easy because of how well
I had covered the watercolor with acrylic medium.
The theme for this painting will be continued
on a medium sized 22''x28" canvas with another abstract already on the surface.
Maybe I will come back and paint more bubbles inspired by the circles in the original abstract. The bubbles are blown form the golden flute. Also will judge if this painting is racist because the dark skinned flutter is in a darker part of the painting.
4 comments:
I like that a lot. very calming in a time like this. as for racist??? are you kidding??? If you painted both black or brown women, they'd say it's not your culture-- how dare you! lol I don't think the darker image (seeming rather dreamlike would be seen as anything but a need to balance the painting. Basically, using a writerly term, plotting your painting. :)
Maybe in a painting it is alright when not a picture of a living identifyable person. I have a family photograph, however, of my great uncle's barber shop. My uncle is in the foreground and the African American barber who worked for my great uncle is way back in a shadowed area. I consider the photograph racist and I connect the two.
Until I was painting my own picture, I did not consider Henri Rousseau's painting racist. In 1910 in France, maybe?
It seems like the second, dreamlike figure is representative of music from a culture, like Hindu. If you are worried, make the person light skinned with the drum as Indians come in all skin values. i didn't see that person serving this one but more a dream image of native music. Make something else dark in that area to get the balance you want in your composition. We are in a super sensitive time.
Rain, Thank you for your suggestions. Wednesday I am posting a phase in the development of a new painting where I did paint the music maker with light skin with amusing results. I'll take a closer ook at the elephant and lion. Think the painting is Africa. Plus Rousseau said it was Africa.
It is not just the times but symbolism changes over time.
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