Reworked jacket, sky and stone

Posted on November 11, 2008 by pearce

Amelia is developing well. My ideas are changing all the time at the moment, and I’m really enjoying the developments. Having painted the sky in, I got into the next unifying layer of raw sienna over the landscape, and added some of the sky’s Prussian into the yellowy paint, making a very pleasant green layer that has transformed the desert into a spring landscape. I’m really enjoying this, as it suggests that the combination of elements, or conjunctio, has begun to produce it’s resulting amalgamation into an alloy. So I’m intrigued with the potential for a progression of time in the landscape – after the hermit, Amelia, as the elemental air comes to visit, bringing transformation to the barren landscape.

I’m very pleased with the outcome of the work I put into the coat, which is looking very rich now. I worked with some Prussian Blue to deepen the shadows and define a few edges, buttons and tailoring, then added a logo to her shirt. Obviously there’s a ton of work to do to the features of the face, feet and hands, and I expect to move onto those areas fairly soon.

I plan to begin producing my own essential oils pretty soon, and I’m also quite interested in the idea of getting serious about making my own paint if I can produce very pure oil and resins. I’m not convinced that the time that I would need to put into this endeavor would be cost effective considering the studio time I probably lose, but it’s certainly something I want to do at least once. 

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High Studio exhibit opens

Posted on November 10, 2008 by pearce

I have several paintings in a show titled “Dreamscapes” at the High Studio in Moorpark. We installed the “As the Crow Flies” piece, dominating one wall of the gallery. It’s a solidly alchemical piece, illustrating the nigredo, the process of purifying a substance by burning in to reduce it to it’s fundamental salt.

Group Show: Oils, Acrylic & ink, bronzes 
Open November 3, 2008 thru January 1, 2009

Featuring Artists: Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke, Irena Jablonski, Kathrin Raab-Questenberg, Michael Pearce, Bob Privitt, Shawna Hatton.

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Amelia’s sky, sailing

Posted on November 10, 2008 by pearce

I painted a glaze of Prussian Blue over the sky, taking it to a nice rich dark blue that I’m enjoying so much that the Prussian might supplant the Ultramarine blue in my choice of favorite blues. I love that darkness, fading out to a deep but transparent glaze. Peachy! I also re-introduced a glaze of iron oxide (burnt sienna) into Amelia’s coat, which will make it richer and deeper, then scraped it off so the white texture shows through. Next glaze will sit over the top of the existing oxide and the white too, so there will be a rich variety of colour in the surface of the paint.

I went to Santa Barbara this weekend, where I sincerely hope I will be able to make my next home, at least for the next few months. Jim Connolly took us sailing in his boat, and we were blown out into the channel between the mainland and the Channel Islands, where the Chumash – California native Americans – are said to have originated, whereupon we became becalmed, so while we waited for wind he entertained us on his banjo and we enjoyed each others company and watched seals curling through the water. I hope to get out there with him again soon, because I think I need photos of the ocean. I have made several paintings that deal with the elements of earth and air, but none that emphasize fire or water, so I think it’s time to find Amelia in a boat, adrift in an open sea. Cyn McCurry, who I think the world of, and whose work I adore has painted several works on the theme of women drifting in a boat, and I think there’s some of her influence rubbing off on me here. 

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Amelia in the desert

Posted on November 6, 2008 by pearce

I added a sky, because I just couldn’t stand leaving the background in darkness, wanting to find the desert scene I enjoyed in Bombers. So right now I’ve added some of the salty stones in the foreground and I’ve painted a blue sky ready for the next layer of dark Ultramarine or Prussian Blue that will give me the night, allowing that light to glow richly. I really love the ability of Prussian Blue to go from super dark to a nice rich glaze. Eventually the circle of orange will become a bright ball of light on the left side of the canvas. 

I wasn’t satisfied that there was enough rich painting in the jacket, so even though there was some very nice texture going on here and there I added some more knifed on paint to improve that lovely thick knifed on layer. I also dropped the blue of her pants back a bit by putting on a glaze of the brown from the jacket, then wiping it off, subtly softening the colour so it doesn’t attract the eye too much. The face and the hand reaching for the light are the areas I want to attract attention too, and the bright ball of light on the left side.

I probably will have to wait for a couple of days before hitting this painting again, because it’s still pretty cool here.

  

 

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Amelia’s Jacket

Posted on November 4, 2008 by pearce

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the white paint dry enough to work on at last I was able to bring some colour into the figure. I really enjoyed using a combination of the knife, the brush and a rag to apply the paint and get these lovely textures for the surface of the leather coat. Detail shot upper left. The circles on the left are distracting right now, and are really guidelines for where the light will fall later. 

I love the way the soft rag work becomes textured by scraping the surface with a knife, removing the brown from the white beneath it. Almost edible.

I added a layer of Prussian blue into the middle of the figure. I chose this blue because it has the wonderful quality of ranging from black to a rich, almost ultramarine blue, perfect for blue material emerging from shadow. Right now, of course, the background appears to be too light because of the more detailed work on the figure, so I’ll balance that up later, when I’ve put more information on the surface of the ground. I really liked the dried out lake bed stones I put into the Bombers piece, and I’m very tempted to do a similar treatment here.

I also need to get to fixing up the face and hands soon, but this will have to wait until this coat and body work is dry.

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Glaze

Posted on November 3, 2008 by pearce

I added a glaze of Ultramarine Blue and Ivory Black to the background of Amelia, who is still not quite ready for another layer – that thick white paint can take a really long time to dry, especially when it’s damp.

The brush on the right is a large badger hair blender that is fantastic for making soft backgrounds. You use it by painting your glaze coat on with another brush, then using this beauty dry, gently touching the surface with a light touch, flicking back and forth to soften the brushstrokes. The result is a lovely soft coat of paint which looks almost glassy when it’s complete.

Earlier today I went to the High Studio and put together the “As the Crow Flies” installation. Looking good so far. Opening reception this Saturday afternoon.

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Amelia in the dark, Temperance gets wings

Posted on November 2, 2008 by pearce

I built up some of the shadows for Amelia’s background. I like the way this looks so far, and we’ll see where it goes from here. The light is beginning to feel real and she’s coming off the canvas quite nicely. This is almost a return to the way I was painting several years ago – very Caravaggio influenced and interested in figures emerging from darkness. I think now the paint will be richer and more vibrant with the knife work combined with the brush.

That line, incidentally, is at 1 : 1.62 of the vertical height of the canvas.

I’ve been considering the development of style in my work. I’m painting pretty much the same theme of ideas that I wanted to make when I was a much younger man, but the difference is that now I have the technical ability to do it. We have a responsibility to pass on technique to the next generations of artists so that they are able to make whatever they want to – the modernist century was not good for that mindset, being more interested in the idea that personal exploration was more important, and I think it is, but not at the price of learning the tools we need to be able to put the ideas we gain from digging into ourselves onto canvas, or installations, or whatever creative medium we choose. I want my students to be able to balance their work between technique and experiment.

Nuff said. 

 Temperance is moving along too. She has a nice pair of swan’s wings to boast of that I’m happy with. Of course they’ll need lots more detail to show where the feathers are, and I’ll be defining their shape and colour as time goes by, but this is a good start. I used reference shots of swans and pelicans taken when I was at a bird sanctuary near Bath, England, shot in 2006 during a family trip to visit my parents and brother’s family! Go figure. Never throw your pictures away!

I reworked Temperance’s face while I was at it and got a good layer of grey value work on there, improving the rough layer I had already done. She looks a bit stern right now, but you can’t do everything in one go, and sometimes it’s far better to wait for the paint to dry if you have work done that you like, fixing what you don’t like later, when you won’t destroy the good things.

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Amelia in the cavern

Posted on November 2, 2008 by pearce

Because it’s been intemperately pouring with rain here in Southern California, lovely Amelia’s too wet to paint today unless I work around the figure and deal with the background. When the air is full of moisture paint takes much longer to dry, even with a siccative medium like Graham’s Walnut Alkyd in it.

I’m rethinking where Amelia is situated, based on the completely random layout of the primer coat of burnt sienna (the lovely orange brown) Doesn’t it feel as though she’s within a cavern that has been carved from the living rock? If I go this way, she’s the spirit of air who has entered deep into the earth to pursue the light.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Where’s the water?

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Temperance and Amelia – the dark

Posted on November 1, 2008 by pearce

I painted and knifed an en grisaille layer for Amelia, who needs to have some rich dark shadows if the light effect is going to be effective. I worked some darkness into the shadows of the Temperance piece but I think I need to add a bit more into the thigh, where there should be some darkness cast by the jacket flap.

Old Caravaggio knew what he was doing with this kind of work, and I’ve always admired him for it, even if he did have the crappiest life imaginable. The important thing to remember is that you can leave out almost everything as long as what you leave in is in exactly the right place. If the figure is going to emerge from darkness you have to be prepared to paint out much of what you put down so that only fragments are visible. I think Amelia needs to be in a cavernous void with galaxies and stars decorating it.

Next step, to start working on the faces and getting them right, and figuring out the wings more effectively. I’ll take a look at the hawk wings I borrowed from the Biology lab and see how these may best be placed to look like wings that could actually be used.

 

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Amelia reaches for the light

Posted on November 1, 2008 by pearce

I’ve been so busy with organizing the Halloween festival that painting has been moving quite slowly, but I did get to put the primer layer over the drawing of Amelia as she reaches for the light in the big painting. It’s pretty hard to see the graphite under the burnt sienna layer, and I might start switching over to the old way of rendering the first drawing in ink, which obviously stands up better to the wear of painting that lovely rich oxide over it.

I’m increasingly interested in painting subjects that express the spiritual search for God. In this piece I’m using Amelia as a metaphor for all people who are on that journey. She’s in the air somewhere, reaching out for the light, closer to the divine essence than she has been – just maybe she can reach it. Incidentally, I’m using the word “God” in a loose way – I think whether we talk of God, or the Universe or, the Goddess, or any other term to express the ineffable mystery of the creation is a matter of semantics, that actually is quite immaterial to the search itself. Aren’t physicists and chemists engaged in the same search for understanding the nature of the universe? I don’t see any difference.  

There’s thunder in the air. The wind just turned and it’s going to pour. I had planned to go camping with my children this weekend, but I guess we’re out of luck. Maybe I’ll put the tent up in the studio! 

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