January 26, 2008
Overworked and Exciting Work in Progress
Let's start with the exciting WIP cause that way you can skip all the pictures I have of the finished one if you so desire. I'm doing a painting for an exhibit with the theme Community. My former pastor Leroy Barber is a man who has a passion for what I think God sees as true community. He taught Andy and I a lot about the importance of being intentional with relationships and healing, especially in the area of racial reconciliation and friendships with the poor and needy. His portrait was an easy pick for me when thinking about community. I chose to do it in the grid form made famous by Chuck Close. I liked the grid style for the idea of community b/c when you paint each individual square it makes no sense at all. While a single square can look cool in itself it just doesn't stand well on it's own. But when you step back and view all the squares together there's an entirely new beauty, function and sense to the entire piece. This style says a lot about what we're to be (esp) as a Christian community.
I've been itching to do this style for a while but had to throw off my insecurities and fears first. God's freed me up a lot in my art and I'm loving doing this piece! I've given myself permission to "fail" (in my eyes) and work fully in the enjoyment and glory of God. It's so much fun! So, here's what it looked like a couple days ago. It's tedious and slow but like I said, I'm loving it.
And here's the latest one I've finished. It's called Exalt. I like it okay but I overworked it. I'm grateful for the new perspective God's given me that I can realize the successes and accept the failures in this piece and know I've got to keep creating if I'm going to get better. Sorry the pictures are such poor quality. I'm just not a photographer. We'll leave that to my sister.
Some details of the wording.
Gid's a little partial to this guy.
I'm a little partial to his foot.
I gessoed leaves throughout before beginning the painting. That turned out to be fun though hard to paint on at times.
I finished the birds and sun and knew I wanted something else at the upper right side. That night I decided to start a butterfly the next day. The next morning Gideon assessed the painting and told me I should paint a butterfly up there. I hadn't mentioned one at all, so a butterfly it was!
You're going to hafta explain your process a little more. Sorry, dear pregnant artist, I need to know more details. I'm having a hard time telling whats collaged on there and what's painted. Either way, the birds and butterfly are wonderfully represented. I had no idea you could produce something so accomplished. And I mean that with all honesty and luuuuv. I should scold you in retrospect for not working more when we were together. Naughty naughty.
Have fun with the Chuck Close piece. One tip. I worked on the whole canvas at the same time, not one square at a time. Adding the same color in all the places that needed it then changing colors and moving across the whole piece again. Not that I'm telling you to change. The process can be the most personal and the best part. so, enjoy!!
Posted by: katiek at January 26, 2008 09:51 PMThanks, Katie! I'm kinda discovering issues w/the colors now but it's more to do with freaking not enough of a color mixed up ahead of time. And you know it's impossible to duplicate a color the next time. I thought I'd done plenty but we learn as we go, eh?
Oh, and the leaves are the only collaged parts, put on then gessoed over. The rest is painted. I used that super heavy gel you told me about for the lettering. There's also some uncolored lettering: rejoice and lift high using the gel in the upper middle green ray thing and the green block on the left directly under the sun.
Posted by: lynnp at January 27, 2008 07:23 PMwow Lynn that is great! love it!
Posted by: bobw at January 28, 2008 09:34 AMI love it! You arn't selling it are you? I love it so much!
Posted by: Shannel at January 28, 2008 10:33 PMI really love it! I esp. like the birds. E and I were looking at it online together and he couldn't believe you'd painted it, he hadn't realized how talented you are. He really liked it too. Keep up the good work! I'm so glad you're using the gifts God's given you for His glory ~ it makes me so happy!
Posted by: Mom at January 29, 2008 05:22 AMLynn - I really like this too. Causes me to slow down abit to fully enjoy what's there and to give it time to speak to me. I know Grampie will love it, so I'll print it out and pass it on to him.
-- Papa
Posted by: Papa at January 30, 2008 07:03 AMlynn... this is wonderful work... so glad to see the pics... the community piece is especially nice- great styling choice.. so appropriate! & that is a lovely little bird --- great work... keep it up -
Posted by: jen k at January 31, 2008 07:47 AMThe critters are really good, I like them alot. I like your color pallette, it's very personal. I think I"m a little more free about color mixing. I think I just mix one color, use it all over the place and then try something else. Since I started watercoloring more I find I have to find the right color, value, tone. It's just harder in some ways. I think there are ways you can duplicate colors exactly, I read something in a "how to paint" book. It didn't seem too wierd. I"m to set in my ways to try a new method. Maybe that's a problem :)
Posted by: katiek at February 1, 2008 09:06 AM