There are some nice parts to this painting, but overall not a whole lot to hang on to. It did give me some things to think about though. I think I am going to stretch four quarter sheets and see if these new ideas can hold up on a more forgiving scale.
But first I will finish this apple.
Is there anything Rose Madder can’t do?
No, there is not.
Most of this happened shortly before and shortly after Thanksgiving, but this truth did not lend itself to a blog title. I apologize for the shadow, but make no concessions for the progress.
I can’t really think of what to write about this painting. I think it is one of the strongest works I have done in a while, but I am not sure why. I think the use of color and modeling is getting better, but I would hate to hang my hat on better technique. This is not to say better technique is a bad thing. I really believe that in most cases you need some kind of technique to make a good painting.
What worries me is that I begin to only pursue better technique. Better technique can make a painting look better (“hey that is well painted”), but it does not make a painting more interesting or transcending or what ever a painting should do. I want my paintings to do what paintings should do.
I remember reading a video game review a while ago. I can’t remember the game, but it was based on a movie. In any event the reviewer stated that he felt sad for all the people who contributed their time towards the making of the game, which while good looking and well built, had zero fun. Fun, of course, is what, deep down, every video game longs to be. No amount of polish can make a game fun. Of course a complete lack of polish can stand in the way of fun.
It is fun to have a painting turn out. You can hang it up on your wall, and hope other people who come to your house look at it and say things like; “Hey, nice painting.” This scenario has not happened yet but there is still time.
I cannot say enough about how much this blog has helped me further my painting. It gives me access to an imaginary audience that I would hate to let down. It also gives me a place where I can always look and see how my paintings have improved, or not, in a chronological type fashion.
I would like to thank the people at WordPress, and encourage anyone to start a painting, or sculpture, blog. If I were really on top of things I would include notes on technique or color mixtures for further personal reference.
I really like this painting. It has nice colors and I feel it has some, dare I say it, emotional depth. Not clear cut emotional depth, but a muddy sort of emotion. For some reason muddy emotion seems good.
I also just sort of like the idea of birds with these long mechanical, or at least geometric, legs. They have some good movement to them and are an unusual alternative to wings.
This painting is for the most part a disaster. I am a color field guy, and really have no idea how to use visible brush strokes. This is probably why I stay as far away from oil color as I can. This painting definitely suffers from “just one more thing and then it will be good” syndrome.
I am going back to half and quarter sheets and work on fundamentals.
The relationship between bridges and cages seems like a good relationship for rabbits and birds to explore. I would imagine their forms are used to bridges and cages. Cages to take you places, bridges with locked doors.
Often the titles of my blog entries are not the titles of the paintings featured within them. Often my paintings do not have titles, but not this time. This painting is titled Bridge Over Memories of Serpents. I like the painting more than the title, but I must admit the title does make me feel fairly clever, and maybe even a bit poetic.
I think this is a good painting, mostly because it is the kind of painting I had to paint other paintings in order to paint. What I mean is I could not have painted this painting right off the bat. I had to paint into this painting. In my opinion painting paintings is much more fun than thinking up paintings to paint.
