On severed fingertips and the only acceptable way to torture oneself
To start a painting, I first decide on a primary source image, a photo that most fully expresses the subject’s who-ness. I then sketch the image on the primed canvas with charcoal. Once the drawing looks mostly right, I solidify the charcoal lines with burnt umber or some dark color. Then I wash the whole composition in a watered down color, removing the charcoal dust and giving me something to work with besides the white primer. Usually, the base tint is a brown-yellow or some light color.
Harper’s and Addie’s portraits are an exception. I washed their canvases with a dark brown-purple.
As I painted, I struggled to reclaim the luminosity of the original primer which I had so thoroughly covered.
I paint by layering thinned colors and rely on this watercolor-y method for a depth effect. The darker base was complicating matters.
Though I fought the dark under-painting throughout the process, I came to love the richness it created once I completed the works. It was worth the trouble.
Gwenn Seemel
Harper and Addie
2007
acrylic on canvas
30 x 60 inches (together)
There is a lot of talk about the merits of the “tortured artist.” I have heard many a critic praise a particular work for its distressed appearance. I don’t adhere to that school.
Work can become too formulaic and stagnate if the artist isn’t challenging her or himself, but the finished piece should never betray the difficulties that the artist had in creating the work.
To paraphrase what a wise little bird once said to me, I wouldn’t appreciate discovering a chef’s severed fingertip among the celery and carrots in his vegetable soup. It certainly wouldn’t make the dish yummier to know that the chef had suffered to make it.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Working on many paintings at the same time
- Getting it right
- Art should appear effortless.
CATEGORIES: - Process images - Practice -
Homager X...
At least you’re not poisoned by a bohemian mindset. I’m liking the photos of you paintings
--- -- - --- - ---- - - --- ----- -- -much more than the painting s themselves because of the subdued warm lighting.
Otherwise, like the images at the bottom here,
they look like cold clammy fish.