Prior to this residency I was very unsure about the
direction to go in with my work. I knew that I needed something to bring my
voice into my work, but with the wide variety work that I had been making this
seemed like an impossible goal. The work that I choose to bring to the
residency included figurative oil paintings, children’s portraits, landscapes
and sculptural ceramics. Over the course of the residency this diverse
selection of work brought on some very different responses and ideas from
others, some of which were contrasting and some which were more helpful than
others. These ideas showed several different directions my work could possibly
go in and also helped me narrow down which type of work I am currently most
interested in creating.
The majority of the people who viewed my work were
most interested in the portraits of my children and my ceramic sculptures. My
figurative paintings of models and landscapes seemed, by most, to be too much
like studies. I was told that these paintings lacked voice, whereas my
portraits and sculptures seemed much more personal and showed a greater depth.
Some of the other ideas, criticisms, and feedback that I received from my work
over the course of the residency, as well as suggested artist and books, were
as follows:
For
paintings:
·
I
am already changing colors in my landscape in a very subtle way, but could push idea further by taking control
of nature by drastically changing colors past what appears natural and
eliminating the romance of the scene.
·
Same
color changing idea can be applied to portraits of children. Children cannot
always be controlled in reality but can be controlled on canvas by altering
colors past what is natural and exploring possibilities of distortion and
exaggeration of features.
·
Develop
better color palettes that can be used for references when altering colors in
paintings.
·
Children’s
portraits currently eliminate chaos of motherhood in posed, “photo-quality”
scenes with moderately empty backgrounds. Why not show the tension of being a mother
in portraits instead of hiding it? Expressing
the chaos could be more personal than hiding it.
·
If
I am going to continue painting from photos, I need to take better photos and
more of them. Eliminate the flash, use raking light and take pictures with the
intention of painting them. Also take multiple show of same pose and consider
collage scenes to keep the painting from appearing like it was painted from a
photo.
·
Figure
out what I am trying to say about my children. What is my view of them? What is
their view?
·
Colors
need to be juicier.
·
Think
of the space around the figures as just as important as the figures themselves.
·
Consider
creating inventive landscapes or backgrounds for paintings.
·
Consider
incorporating collage or sculptural elements into the paintings to unite my
paintings with my sculptures. Paintings could incorporate objects that
represent my sculptures or even become sculptural themselves by thinking
abstractly and giving less allegiance to the photo.
·
Artists:
Terri Thomas, Ed Paschke, Alice Neel, Jenny Saville, An Harris, John Currin,
Garhart Richter, Kris Lewis, Katie Schneider (my mentor), Damon Lehrer,
Balthus, Mary Cassett, Renior, Paula Rego, Casey Arbor
·
Books:
Painting People, Vitamin P and Vitamin D (Elizabeth Peyton), Portraiture (
Richard Brilliant), Portraiture (Oxford History of Art, Shearer West), Lessons
in Classical Drawing (Juliette Aristides)
For sculptures:
·
I
need to come up with the ideas behind the texture and form for my sculptures?
What do they mean?
·
Maybe
the sculptures do not need to mean anything and could be just pure, endless explorations
of organic forms.
·
Photos
could be infused onto sculptures to unite with paintings.
·
Consider
views sculptures as “vessels,” or representations of the female body.
·
Need
more variety with glazes. Could experiment with color.
·
Ceramics
could move into the painting and literally become part of the paintings, or
could just be painting in.
·
Artists:
Linda Fitzgibbon
Many
of these ideas I found very helpful and plan on experimenting with over the
course of the semester. As far as my landscapes, what I enjoyed most about landscape
paintings was that there are endless choices of colors that can be used as well
as endless styles of brushstrokes that can still allow the painting to appear
natural. After talking to multiple people over the residency I see that I
should have pushed this idea further instead of worrying about making the
landscape appear “natural.” This control over nature through much more drastic
color alterations is one possible direction that I could take if I chose to
continue with landscape painting; however at this time I would rather
incorporate this idea into my portraits. The landscapes are about how I enjoy
paintings, whereas the portraits are about what I enjoy painting. The portraits
are much more personal to me than the landscapes will ever be. As for the
paintings of models, these really were just studies. They were studies painted
from life that I intended to use as help while painting for photos. These paintings
are also into nearly as personal as the portraits of my children, which is why
for the course of the semester I intend to focus on portraiture.
Currently
the portraits I have done of my children have been posed and all chaos and
tension has been eliminated. I was attempting to deal with the tension of being
a mother by hiding it in a controlled portrait. It was then suggested to me at
the residency that I deal with the chaos by expressing it on the canvas instead
of by hiding it. This has been something that I was avoiding in an attempt to
organize my life, but it something I now would like to incorporate into the
portraits of my children in order to make them even more personal. I feel that
this will also help bring my voice into my paintings by showing how I view my
children and my life. Another idea I received that will help me truly capture
this chaos is that I should give the space around the figures just as much
attention as the figures themselves. This will then give the viewer a better
idea of the scene surrounding my children, and therefore bring more meaning
into the painting.
I
have decided to follow the advice given about developing better color palettes
and am currently experimenting with creating these different color palettes,
and then using these color palettes in small paintings. I have not yet decided
whether I will actually use most of these color palettes in the larger
paintings, but this is again a possible direction for my portraits. I have also
started taking more photos with the intention of paintings these photos. I
liked the idea of taking several photos and then creating a collage of the
photos to create a scene that I will then paint. This will help keep me from
being too tied to making the painting resemble one single photo and will also help
eliminate the “photo-quality” that has been part of my previous portraits. My
goal is to make my paintings appear as though they were painting from life, and
not from a still photo.
My
biggest fear when starting the residency was that people would try to convince
me to stop painting realistically. This is the style that I enjoy painting in
and I have no intention of moving to a more abstract style. Then at the
residency I was very surprised, and pleased, that only one person actually
tried convincing me to move into abstract paintings. The advice that I was
given was to incorporate collage and sculptural elements into my paintings and
to paint in a way that represents my sculptures instead of a photo. While the
idea of collage is something that I have previously considered, and may someday
incorporate into my paintings, this is not a direction I currently wish to
follow. Apart from this I really have no intention of incorporating anything
sculptural into my paintings or painting in a style that represents my
sculptures. I am currently uninterested in uniting my paintings and ceramics as
I do not intend on continuing working with clay over the course of the
semester. While I am fascinated with organic forms and enjoy exploring these
forms with my ceramic sculptures, I do not feel that this exploration will lead
anywhere beyond that. I plan on continuing with ceramics only as an exercise to
help me relax since it is a very calming process, but I do not intend on
focusing on this style of art. Apart from these suggestions about my sculptures
and uniting my sculptures and paintings, I found most of the ideas I received
from others to be very helpful and I now have a very good idea for what direction
I think I would like my work to go in over the semester.
No comments:
Post a Comment