I’m not a good painter…
Recently, I re-stretched two paintings for a group show in which I am participating, Keep Portland Weird (it’s at Portland City Hall and it opens 6 March, from 5 to 7).
They are older paintings, from 2004 and 2005, and like most of my unsold paintings from around that time, I had rolled them up and tucked them away. I rarely look at any of my paintings from those years. Preparing these two portraits for the upcoming show was a revelation.
Gwenn Seemel
Paul Linnman
2004
acrylic on canvas
36 by 24 inches
(with detail)
When I painted Linnman’s portrait, I was working with a handful of brushes, mostly rounds of varying sizes and a few small flats along with one or two coarse house painting brushes. By the time I was working on Leonard’s portrait, I had added a fine-quality flat brush that was one and half inches wide, but since I’d spent all my savings on it, I was shy about using it too much.
Gwenn Seemel
Randy Leonard
2005
acrylic on canvas
24 by 18 inches
(with detail)
By 2006, when I painted Richard’s portrait for example, I had acquired a whole family of fine-quality flat brushes, and I was learning to use them. They didn’t intimidate me anymore.
The addition of these brushes changed my style. I was (and am) still making marks in approximately the same way as when I started painting at sixteen, but, because my tools have changed, the results have too.
Good tools make all the difference.
(2) Comments: I’m not a good painter…
Hey Gwenn, this is fabulous!! I have been wanting to watch your process for years, and this is like seeing you naked….almost. Just as good, I’d say! Thanks for posting it.
David said...
I like the old paintings with the fat lines. And I agree, good tools. You’ve inspired me to get some good tools. Better and more tools. He who dies with the most tools wins!
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