In writing this blog, I wonder if I have anything new or original or even interesting to say. It seems a bit silly and leaves me feeling self-conscious.
But, actually, there are things I must say. I’ve worked at art a long, long time. I’ve learned some things that have compelled me to keep working all this time, and I want to express them. I want to share them and put them out into the world.
So!
For the last few years, I’ve been doing lots of landscapes. Mostly these are done in pastel, sometimes in oil or acrylic. These images are very funny to me. They are playful. They are surprisingly like the landscapes I’ve found in traveling through Montgomery and Frederick Counties. They are very like the gently rolling hills I've found there. The works often contain playful and impossible elements such as arcane buildings with domes and porticoes or roads that rise straight up into the sky. I love these drawings and paintings. They are, as my friend Vicky says, little friends. Except, they’re not so little. Two examples are below:
But, actually, there are things I must say. I’ve worked at art a long, long time. I’ve learned some things that have compelled me to keep working all this time, and I want to express them. I want to share them and put them out into the world.
So!
For the last few years, I’ve been doing lots of landscapes. Mostly these are done in pastel, sometimes in oil or acrylic. These images are very funny to me. They are playful. They are surprisingly like the landscapes I’ve found in traveling through Montgomery and Frederick Counties. They are very like the gently rolling hills I've found there. The works often contain playful and impossible elements such as arcane buildings with domes and porticoes or roads that rise straight up into the sky. I love these drawings and paintings. They are, as my friend Vicky says, little friends. Except, they’re not so little. Two examples are below:
"How Many Ways", Pastel, charcoal and oil pastel on paper, 2021
"Get Away, III". Oil on Board, 2020
Previously, I had worked mostly from observation. Working in this way, it is almost inevitable that I will put marks onto whatever surface I’m working on and they will be some attempt to replicate what I'm seeing. Placing or putting marks is deliberate and intellectual. It’s driven by a sense I have of what “should be” in the picture. Three examples of this kind of work are below. Click on the image for a larger version.
But, now, I’m distinguishing from this deliberate and descriptive work to talk about work that springs arbitrarily and randomly from another, non-intellectual place entirely.
This work is unexpected and uncertain until I can suddenly recognize something that seems to belong in the picture. A tangle of lines that are puzzling, until suddenly they resolve into a highway cutting through a landscape. Or, perhaps buildings that are upside down when viewed from one angle, but perfectly right-side up when viewed from another. Rules of traditional perspective do not apply here.
Work done in this manner often surprises me. More than anything, I want art to surprise me. So, the fact that a heavy line goes down on the page, and suddenly it becomes a street or a towering high rise or a tree trunk, simply intrigues and delights me. I never make mistakes in these works. Not because I’m not likely to make a wrong move or get something out of place, but because marks that seem out of place, or disruptive, urge me to keep working at the picture until I find something I like, and balance is restored. So, truly, I am finding these images as I make them. I feel an incredible freedom in doing these found drawings. Examples of this work are below. Click on each image for a larger version.
This work is unexpected and uncertain until I can suddenly recognize something that seems to belong in the picture. A tangle of lines that are puzzling, until suddenly they resolve into a highway cutting through a landscape. Or, perhaps buildings that are upside down when viewed from one angle, but perfectly right-side up when viewed from another. Rules of traditional perspective do not apply here.
Work done in this manner often surprises me. More than anything, I want art to surprise me. So, the fact that a heavy line goes down on the page, and suddenly it becomes a street or a towering high rise or a tree trunk, simply intrigues and delights me. I never make mistakes in these works. Not because I’m not likely to make a wrong move or get something out of place, but because marks that seem out of place, or disruptive, urge me to keep working at the picture until I find something I like, and balance is restored. So, truly, I am finding these images as I make them. I feel an incredible freedom in doing these found drawings. Examples of this work are below. Click on each image for a larger version.
I think of this as drawing with my eyes versus drawing with my intellect. When I’m working intellectually, I’m very likely to miss the tremendous excitement of two pigments going together, or the texture of scumbled washy paint. All of this excitement disappears when the intellect is in control and I get caught up in some cerebral discussion of how the chair or the row of houses are mostly likely to look. Is it a metal chair? An upholstered chair? How many windows in those row houses? It's unimportant. The only thing that matters is responding to what is happening as I work and to the visual qualities of the drawing or painting as it emerges.
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