Bad Cloud Topography

Oh why won’t you work like I think you should!

The Clouds Look Different Since You Died

I hope using the 2nd person in the title doesn’t seem too over dramatic.  I really like the idea of “the clouds look different” and needed to add a dramatic time element to make sure that I was not referring to the current clouds but the continuous clouds or something like that.

Through the course of this painting I have really enjoyed exploring how closely clouds and continents look.  That seems important.  Clouds are ever changing but (sometimes for me at least) it is easy to feel they always look the same or not even notice them because it seems like they are the same clouds from yesterday.  Sort of like the continents, which in our lifetimes will pretty much always look the same even though they are always changing.  Two seemingly permanent things that are not really permanent at all, one hard to think of as permanent the other hard to think of as not.

At this point I still really like the bands of color/bands of no color.  A sometimes think of them as rivers but they are much more.

Details

One (One Hour) Wash Latter

Finally!  This one is almost done (well, really it could be done, I just have to look at it a little longer to be sure and to see if it needs anything else).  I will take some better pictures, and some details, give it a title, and talk about it.

Color!

Another weird view, but now with color.  Color!

There are no Starting Points

This is sort of an upside down view.
It is a lot more map like than I thought it would be, but that should still work.  I am at the awkward place where I hope this isn’t as silly as it seems.

Clouds With Out Faces

I thought about titling this post “When You Draw a Cloud You Draw the Sky”, but then laughed out loud because that has to be the lamest title for almost anything (I did a quick google search to see if there was anything with that title and thankfully there was not.)  Despite the lame titles it inspires, there is something really great about loosing track of which side of the line represents the figure and which represents the ground.  My original idea was to paint a light wash over the sky area (this would also emphasize theerasures ) in the painting but now I am not so sure.  I still have some color ideas for the lower part, the sort of full abyss thing I have been working with, but if I don’t use color on the sky the whiteness of the clouds wouldn’t resonate with the whiteness of the empty abysses (also planned but now possibly being unplanned.)  All in all, right now I am being confronted with the kinds of mysteries I like to experience while I work.

Not Sure Where I am

Throwing caution to the the wind, I stretched a 60″ x 45″ (or so) piece of watercolor paper, sketched out a few thumbnails and started drawing some clouds/continents/shapes in the top left-hand corner.  It is fairly slow going, mostly because it is hard to make something look perfect when you are not sure what it is you are drawing until after it is drawn (a lot of looking and erasing, drawing and re-drawing).  The time line for this project is quite different from my usual work, and since I sort of use my blog to keep myself on track I will be posting periodic updates.

The initial impetus for this came from a couple of different areas.  A few weeks ago I was looking over my work for a piece to submit to a local art show (a benefit show for the Tillamook United PAWS).  I had mixed feelings.  Sometimes I was really with the work, but sometimes it was very underwhelming.

Also, I have begun to question the rabbits (or any of the figures for that matter.)  I don’t know why I frame so many of my problems around the figure ground relationship and the pattern/not a pattern, but it keeps coming up.

The Sadness of What We Have Become

I have been busy moving this month and have gotten a little out of writing practice.  I am pretty happy with the way this work turned out, I really kind of captured the sad I was looking for.  It also has given me something to work on for the next few paintings.  We will see if this turns out, because I rarely make rules like this, but for the next couple of paintings I am going to try these things:
no central composition
and no rabbits.
Also, I have been in the process of moving across town, I would like to warn anyone who is thinking about moving to a coastal environment: anything you have ever heard about mildew, moss and mold is true.

Rabbit Eggs in Orbit

This is the last painting on paper from the 10 yards of watercolor paper I bought last year.  Its nice to be able to quantify how much you paint.  I paint about 10 yards per year, or 10ya/ye.  I have a new roll on order and I hope to improve my painting with the next 10 yards.  I think a realistic goal will be 10.2ya/ye although I will probably have to do a few more push-ups and eat some energy bars.

Watercolor forces you to search for better paintings.

The reason I enjoy watercolor paintings more than oil painting is the immediacy. With oil paint, if something goes wrong you can almost always scrape up the paint and readjust your painting. There might be some residual marks, but for the most part you can correct/go in another direction at any time. Like a studio album, if you come in flat you can always go back and re-dub yourself in. There is a safety net that allows you resolve the painting to where it becomes a “good painting.” This is not to say that oil painting is easy, far from it. Simply because it is more flexible does not compensate for poor talent/work habits.

With that in mind, I would like to make my case for watercolor. With watercolor there is no going back, only improvisation. If you lay down a bad color or shape you can work with it, but you can never undo it. Ever. You can try, but often this only makes things worse. However what you can do is try to evaluate why that color/mark/whatever is “bad” and try to maneuver it around to being good. This definitely calls in to question “what does a good painting look like?” and “just because a painting looks good, does that make it a good painting?” I like that kind of thinking, I like not really knowing what a good painting looks like, I like finding out.

It seems much better to paint a painting that makes people say “Hey! So that is what a good painting looks like.” rather than “Hey! That painting meets all my expectations of what a good painting should look like.”

I think watercolor forces you to search for better paintings.