Artist Gwenn Seemel’s bilingual blog about all the faces she makes while painting faces.

Le blog de l’artiste peintre franco-américaine Gwenn Seemel. Les articles sont en anglais et en français, et souvent ils sont bilingues.

Surprise painting

Each new painting is a special challenge.  Sometimes I fantasize about being able to crank out my work like a Photoshop filter “Gwenn style,” but that’s only when I’m overwhelmed with paintings and deadlines.  For the most part, I’m happy that each piece presents new challenges.  I would get bored pretty quickly if that weren’t the case. 

That said, on a very few occasions, paintings have surprised me by finishing themselves.  It happens because of the way in which I work: putting paint on a handful of canvases at the same time, mixing a color for one painting and then seeing where it fits on the others.  Sometimes as I’m working this way, I apply many layers to a canvas without paying much attention to it and, when I finally do take a careful look, I’m delighted to see that the painting is nearly finished!

Mary’s portrait is one such surprise painting. 

I was layering on the canvas without too much thought.

I knew I wanted Mary to end up in blues and greens since those are her favorite colors…

...but, other than that, I was simply applying paint I had mixed already.

Between this process image and the previous one, there’s about a month.  With the help of that rest period, I was able to approach Mary’s portrait with fresh eyes and, for the first time, really see all the good things that were going on in it. 

I realized that it was a simple matter of solidifying structure…

...and then wrapping up the details.

Before I knew it…

Gwenn Seemel
Mary
2009
acrylic on canvas
17 x 14 inches
(detail below)

...the portrait was done!

Surprise paintings are a good reminder that, much like most aspects of my studio practice, I’m not in control in the same way that I am in the rest of my life.  I can’t force a painting, and art will take its time.

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CATEGORIES: - Process images - Practice -

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