The process of process
Recently I was looking through boxes of forgotten things and I came across the process shots I had taken of my first series of portraits.
I only took two photos of this portrait (which is one in a group of seven) as it progressed. There’s this one from September 2002…
...and this one from about six weeks later. At the time I was juggling a full course load while also trying to make time for this series, which was my culminating project of the Studio Art portion of my degree.
Gwenn Seemel
Roger Hull
2003
acrylic on canvas
48 x 34 inches
(detail below)
More than looking back at the old painting itself, these process shots from years ago reveal how far I’ve come (to my eye anyway!). At the time, I was working with a very limited array of brushes, my mark-making was predominantly vertical and horizontal, and I wasn’t yet capitalizing on the possibilities of watered down paint.
Still, the primary difference between then and now is more poignant than any of these technical changes. I see a distinct lack of confidence in these images of the incomplete painting. I am comfortable with the finished portrait of Hull, but the process shots display everything that I didn’t understand about what I was doing—and not in that fresh way that a beginning painting can!
Art that focuses on the process is usually boring. It ignores or even stonewalls the final collaborator—the audience—who is the missing part of a piece that remains unexhibited.
That said, I believe that the process is worth documenting, and that’s why I do it a lot in this blog—like, for example, with this portrait of Dénes or this one of Jeannette. These snippets of paintings not yet ready to be seen teach me about what works as well as what doesn’t work in painting, just as looking at other artists’ process images help me to understand more how to make art. Process shots are the bread crumbs I leave behind as I go exploring. Though I’ll never make the same painting twice, these painterly notes are stepping stones in every new endeavor.
RELATED ARTICLES:
- Working on many paintings at the same time
- The brush makes the painting.
- Seeing red
CATEGORIES: - Practice - Process images -
Diane Oser...
I’ve thought of documenting my progress and after reading your blog I will be more conscious of doing so. I found your comments most interesting and stimulating. Thank you!
--- -- - --- - ---- - - --- ----- -- -