Painting Can Be Exciting!

 

 

 

This is an intense moment in the painting process. Here the accurately rendered depiction of the landscape is sacrificed for a more accurate depiction of its energy. Here the painting can be ruined, but if this bold approach is successful, the painting can rise to a heightened level of energetic expression.

 

For those paintings I develop in the studio, I bring in both the abstract energy version and the realistic version into the computer, where I concentrate on the transparency of the realistic version, letting it fade through here and there to reveal the abstract underneath, carefully creating the subtle levels of transparency I envision and which come closest to capturing the energy I felt in the scene. Sometimes instead of an abstract, I will use a black background with simple energy lines, reminiscent of photos of sub-atomic particles. I also create lines and transparent rectangles to lay over the image. Here I often print out the image and take these printouts back out on location and make notes on what to alter and enhance.

 

Once I feel the image accurately captures the life of landscape, it is printed out on canvas and other washes and brush strokes are added in the studio. Eventually the whole canvas is painted over again. This brings back the life of the original painting that may have gotten lost in the printing process. This finished painted product I call a mono-print. It is one of a kind because the same image is never used again.