A little over a week ago I did something that occurs with about the same frequency as the swallows returning to Capistrano: a public demonstration. The venue was the Woodlands Waterway Fine Art Festival. Thus far my public demos have been pure abstract, as it would be awkward if no outright illegal to paint the nude figure in a public setting.
It is always fun to do these demonstrations because it forces me to actually think about what I am doing, so that I can comment on it as I work. My macro-approach to art is to learn the "rules" of color and composition, then to undertake an intuitive and intense attack on the canvas. I try to set up conditions where "happy accidents" can happen. I break the rules as I fancy. I destroy and rebuild, repeatedly. Each mistake, each breach of color, and each scar upon the paint creates the detritus that pleases the eye, fulfilling the brain's desire for subtle, organic truths.
There is a word, palimpsest, that means "a parchment manuscript that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible." A second definition reflects figurative use of the term, "an object, place, or area that reflects its history." Both of these speak directly to my abstract painting method.
Anyway, my demo was a relative success, judging by crowd retention and reaction. My goal, always, is just to give artists something to think about, as I believe my approach to art is unconventional. It wouldn't be fair to call it unique, as each artist has a valid art pathway that is theirs only... But part of my method is to intentionally steer the car into the ditch occasionally, then see what happens. In the context of a demo, I call this "thinking outside the box."
I had come to last Saturday's demo with a 50 inch by 24 inch toned canvas. I also had a reference photo, an underwater photo I pulled off the web that reminded me of how it felt to swim in a freshwater lake. I endeavored to paint the feeling of a specific childhood memory, swimming toward the bottom of a lake and looking up through turbid, bright chartreuse water... feeling warmth with my upper body, and a cold thermocline with my feet.
The demonstration was scheduled for two hours, but after an hour and 40 minutes I wrapped it up, as I didn't feel I had anything constructive to add to the painting without a little time away from it. I took the large canvas home and removed it from my sight for a day or so. As sometimes happens, when I viewed the canvas again, I was not particularly pleased with what I saw, so I wiped and scrubbed the oils and sand off the canvas face for service on another day.
Three days prior to the demonstration, at the Blossom Street/Woodlands show, someone reminded me that one of my canvases had been started at the previous year's Woodlands Waterway Art Festival. Shown here is the canvas.
It is titled, "Reach Up", acrylics and sand, 40"x18". It is currently available for $390.
Update 05/01/10 - SOLD
