Compositions and Cutting up Work
I've got a lot of work laying around. Color studies, experiments, paper-tests... these all add up to stacks of work that aren't suitable for sale, but are too interesting to just throw away.
So I cut it up.
I begin by finding areas that call to me, that seem like there might be more to their story if they could stand alone and then cut them out. I don't really pay attention to size or orientation, just allowing that small moment to exist without the trappings of the rest of the painting. (I've cut some 18 x 24s down to 2 inches in my pursuit!)
Once I have my pieces, I like to examine each one - flipping them over and spinning them until that moment becomes a new composition. I'm looking for something I haven't done before, something that begs to be explored, something different. Occasionally I'll tape them up on the wall, here I can flip and manipulate with my mind on other work -- which usually allows the better compositions to percolate to the top of my consciousness.
Armed with a fistful of new compositions, I take these to my sketchbook to explore further. Some end up paintings, some end up taped into the folds to play with another day, but all of them teach me something about how and why I do the work I do.
What do you do with old/experimental work? Do you cut it up too or use it for other purposes?
Process :: Wafian
'Wafian' has been in flux for a few days. (Which is where it gets it's name):
Wafian : From Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and fro, wander”).
It began as most of pieces usually do; a meditation on the colors and rhythms of my surroundings. The frozen pond in the backyard, the layers of slush along the roadside, the ice on the tree branches. And as my work usually does, it dictated it's own way from there.
I am finding myself especially drawn to the patterns in the melting snow, the way it breaks over logs and disappears into puddles. These forms have began to sneak into my work.
I began to consider the white space, originally borne out of snowy inspiration. Most of my work utilizes the negative space in a balancing act with the paint, but it is usually white, or raw canvas. I've done one or two pieces in recent memory that fill the page, but in general I like to use the white space as a way to emphasize what is happening in the rest of the work.
And an old bottle of ink was calling to me, so I answered.
I'll add one more coat of the ink to the areas of the canvas where the strokes are visible, but I am intrigued by what has already happened to the balance of the piece.
Experimental painting days are the best.
Succulent Buds
I love shiny wet watercolors.
I’ve been playing with some nature-inspired abstracts on watercolor-gessoed canvases and I have to say, I love them just as much wet as I do dry.
Recent work - dried and sealed.