Monday, November 1, 2010

The Dimming of the Day... A Different Road Taken











My goal as an artist is to always be open to learning... and to risk new pursuits ... to make me think and work... "outside of the box". It is sometimes a long reach of faith... and imagination to work completely in "the dark"... without the safety net created applying my usual rituals... "ploughing" in the same fields... guided by the same team. On this occasion... I really stepped into darkness when I painted an entire 36x48 inch gallery wrap canvas with a coating of acrylic ivory black as an under tone. Even my wife was confounded by my actions.

So began a much different approach to creating a large canvas... "turning on the lights"... changing night into day... a real live... in my face... Genesis! I will say that right from the first mark... with white chalk on that blackboard space... I experienced an epiphany of sorts... a sense of creative power that had visited "Me" only on a very few occasions before. And that feeling of power and energy never left "Me" ... from start to finish on this work. All of my synapses seemed to be firing simultaneously... I could hardly pry myself away from the easel over the four day period that it took to fully complete the canvas.

There were so many personal things from my own life drawn into its structure and making. Firstly... the site is White's Falls, Muskoka ... a very sacred and special place for my family. Deb, the two lads and I had spent so many hours together there.... fishing, hiking, wiener roasting, exploring and sketching... in all seasons. We even enjoyed our New Year's Day dinner there at the fire pit... on the last occasion... in a full blown blizzard under a tarp... drying snowsuits, mittens, socks and boots over a roaring fire. This is indeed a place of many memories... a sacred, spiritual place for "Me"... forever. A landscape that needed to be painted and recorded!

I kept the drawing part of the process very loose... limiting expression only to basic curves and lines... a map really. The entire activity took only a matter of minutes with the resulting drawing leaving "Me" with a feeling that I remembered fondly... akin to my being at the head of my very first class... chalk in hand... and in charge... full of purpose learning to be passed on... or so I hoped! I liked the direction right from the start!

I began the lay in process... deciding to pitch into the sky area first... the applying a generally similar lightest yellow light in the whole sky area and then moved quickly into applying patches of various green foliage values to the background area of the canvas. Next, I lightly established the vague presence and suggestion of the rock outcroppings in the painting.The greens were then introduced slowly into the reflections in the middle ground water area... finally tying that into the foreground area foliage.

At this point, most of the canvas had been worked on to some degree. I decided to add a few more highlights to the rocks... grasses and introduced a few orangish trees to break up the vast amount of green. My next step was to create some individual forms to represent specifically placed fir trees... massing them as I felt a need to create a unifying rhythm within the painting. Note how some of the black is intentionally left to form line and crevice. Colour is compartmentalized carefully to preserve this intent.

I then directed my attention fully to the foreground which had been ignored really to this point. I had used a digital image blown up to 10x8 inches as a reference along with a small pen and ink sketch that I had hastily laid into a sketchbook a year prior to doing this painting. I knew even then... that some day I would make this exact painting. The scarlet maple so attracted my attention on that day... as the sun retreated and we prepared to depart. It dominated the scene... even beyond the beauty and strength of the fading sunlight. It was exhilarating when the reds and oranges were gingerly added... and reached almost raw-from-the-tube alla prima application to the leaves. The complimentary colours really worked well together to create a very strong foreground image.

I played around with the "muddle" of dead juniper branches that were present... but didn't really help the compositional flow that I had envisioned. So... I improvised... "let it all hang out"... just like a jazz group loves to do when they "jam". The result was again pleasing... and seemed to contribute to the direction that I was hoping for. Much of the rest of the remaining two days was devoted to that "push-and-pull... adjusting of values and hue... "tweaking" areas with darks and lights... to enhance and create sparkle and finesse. The last focus was on remaining "black holes" that remained here and there around the canvas. I did not not want opaque blackness appearing dominantly... so I added darker values... but with colour... in the shadowed areas.

As the final painting session was coming to an end... and I was in the process of resurfacing from the subconscious level that one visits ("The Flow" takes "Me" there)... I became aware of the music that Deb had been listening to. Strange how the Universe speaks! The raspy, plaintive voice of a "regular" songbird in our studio ... Bonny Raitt was in the midst of one of our favourites...The Dimming of the Day. All the world was right! Mission accomplished! From darkness into the light... and back. The end of a great day... and a great learning experience!

"You" might want to give this one a try... on a dreary... no direction kind of day... that we all suffer... from time to time! Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul !

Good Painting to All !

PS Do Google....Boonie Raitt and get an earful and soul full o' Dimming of the Day!

18 comments:

  1. Bruce, the first pic of the beginning of this painting shows the energy and spirit overtaking you...it is quite apparent. Sounds like it was a wonderful journey, that "push and pull" as you say. The final result has vibrance and unexpected richness of colour. I listen to Bonnie Raitt frequently...have been a fan since I first saw her live several times at the Troupadour in LA where my husband worked.

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  2. Hi there "You"!.... Thanks for dropping in again and for the wonderfully interpretive and complimentary response to the piece!

    The whole experience was indeed a wonderful journey... not at all unlike those that you travel in the making of your own wonderful art!When one loves what one is doing... and feels joy... then the result reaches new heights.

    "You" see... we DO indeed share a lot of things... music... natural world... family... etc...even aside from our art interests. The more we "speak'... and "listen".. the more we see that we're the same! Oh... that others on this planet could discover this simple Truth!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards to "You"... and Bob!
    Bruce

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  3. Thank you Bruce for opening your studio and this painting journey for us to share.
    What a wonderful process you describe; I read each of your blogs with enthusiasm and joy!.
    And....by the way, picking up many helpful items to consider from you.
    Thanks again.

    Regards
    Ruby

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  4. Hi Ruby!... Thank "You" for acknowledging my invitation to Followers like yourself to visit and participate in discussing my process and my sharing!

    I sincerely hope that you can apply some of what is offered to help in your own already beautiful art and journey. I am pleased to know that the blog provides you with joy and encourages enthusiasm! Go for it Ruby!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  5. Gosh, I simply loved the first stage Bruce it reminded me of a William Blake picture very mysterious and poetic. Then gradually the story book appears and tells the tale of a lovely day out with the family. Very interesting to read about the journey of four days in which you re live a day. Could you sell that painting Bruce? it would be hard to do so. Thank you for sharing.

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  6. you know what bruce
    i like the first image the most
    it is loose and fresh!
    i would have stopped there,
    but then i'm not you!

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  7. Hi Caroline!.... Thanks for "revisiting"! I always enjoy your responses and value your good eye and suggestions!

    Your own work has some of that same "Blakeness" you mention ... an ethereal... mysterious feel to it, so I can understand the comparison you made.

    A good number of my larger works are indeed motivated and bound by deeply personal experiences. In this case, the painting is a time capsule for "others"... who might live now or later beyond the experiences I have explained in this post.

    Certainly, the landscape will have changed... "I" will be gone as well...but the memories which my family and "I" hold dear... can't be bought ...or sold!They remain in the hearts of my children to enjoy as "I" do now!Painting them is soothing to "Me"!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards Caroline!
    Bruce

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  8. Hi Rob!... Thanks for visiting! I always enjoy our shop talks and sharing!

    A good number of visitors share your feelings about the "loose and fresh" quality of the first image. It doesn't surprise me either... because I always jump head-long and very loosely in my thinking... into every painting and go with "The Flow"... not knowing really where the trail will eventually lead me.

    You are correct as well in stating that "You" are not "Me". That will always be so... and good for us both!HAHA!

    I was cozied up alone... cup o' hot... fresh java in hand early this morning... as is my daily morning ritual... reading a fresh-off-the-newstand copy of a favourite art publication.

    I was browsing an article that contained picures of an artist whose single goal it seemed was to destroy an earlier portrait image in a sort of Jackson Pollock manner. Not my cup o' tea (or java)... but one can often learn by looking beyond preliminary visual response... and not try to compare one's own process to the one in view.

    I found an interesting quote (for "Me").... but perhaps it might well fit for all of us and in particular offer a plausible perspective for the "You" vs "Me" question:

    "The painting and the painter split apart when they can no longer help each other, when the painting no longer nourishes the painter,when the painter can't give any more to the painter." (Christian Bobin, French Poet born in 1951)

    Ain't that so my Friend? I guess we all start... and finish using our own passion and hearts. That's the the joy... the beauty... and individual difference in making art!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  9. Hi Bruce,

    I love the first stage of your painting, it is full of mystery. How wonderful that you painted a place which holds such beautiful memories for you and your family. As I mentioned once before I love to see the transition of a painting. This is truly a lovely place.

    Sue

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  10. Hi Sue!... Good to hear from "You" again!

    Everyone seems to like the first stage... the black background with the ambient yellow light surely does evoke an air of mystery. I may take that into account and push further with that idea in mind when I use this technique again!

    I think that it is a help to see a painting unfold during the proces. Painting is all about transition... moving from one stage to the next... feeling your way as you go.It helps others to see how that occurs.

    It is truly a beautiful place... even better in reality... but at least everyone can have some insight into what we have here. Same holds true for "Me" ... in the other direction! The beauty of sharing blogs!

    Good Painting Sue!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  11. Hi Bruce, me again! I was wondering if you find it hard to sell your paintings especially as you are painting those fleeting moments in life that are so precious to you. I sold two paintings at the beginning of the year that I still miss, they were part of a very special winter journey to me through snow in the garden so I could take their photo in the good lighting outside. They took me three months to complete very slowly planning their growing stages by sketches, glazes and colour study.Thoughts grew as I remembered my days at the scenes I was painting. Finally when I saw on the canvases my inner vision for these two subjects I felt I had captured a very special thing onto canvas. I don't have that feeling about all my paintings in fact my last two while they were a big battle to try and win by constant reworking now leave me indifferent, well almost! Do you have trouble letting go of some of your paintings?

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  12. Hi Caroline!....Thanks for revisiting... and for your very insightful and thoughtful question!

    I have always experienced difficulty in..."letting go" on every level of my being. I am, by nature impassioned about anything in my life that matters to "Me". "Letting go", in my belief system was tantamount to giving up.... and in terms of principles... disrespectful to my Self. This personality characteristic was inculcated through being raised in a family where these principles were taught... and caught... often to my own detriment and even my health. Does that make any sense?

    Holding on to paintings was not excluded from that model of behaviour.... until a few years ago when during a very intense and necessary "revision" process of my own life and future directions.

    I decided in that "revision" process... that if making "Art" was an integral part of my personality (and I knew it had always been so)... it could only be fueled and supported further if it contributed to my well-being financially.

    I made a decision to release each and every painting to the Universe... it was intended as a personal form of expression... so where better than out in the world for others to enjoy.

    It is a personal decision that all serious artists need to consider. The fact that my collectors identify with these immediately... and are as anxious to own them... as I was to create them. Good home... Fair trade for "Me"!

    My Art and my children are what I pass on to the succeding generations to say that I was here. Should I keep my children in my yard?

    Just my opinion... hope that helps "You" insome way.

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  13. Hi Bruce,

    Wow! I love the first stage of this painting as well, in fact each stage was wonderful. I could see that you were in the Zone... All of us love to have that feeling that sweeps us into world that filled with beauty and excitement. Well done Bruce.

    All the best to you.
    Happy Painting and I'll be looking forward to your next post.

    Joan

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  14. Thank "You" Joan!... For your visit and for the supportive ... encouraging comments!

    Being in the zone... or in "The Flow" as I refer to it is meditative and highly therapeutic as well... good for the Soul!

    I'm going to experiment/play around a bit with the firts stage direction a bit because so many people hit on... and enjoyed that particular area of the painting!

    Stay tuned... and we'll see what happens!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  15. hey bruce
    only dead fish go with the flo!
    hehe

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  16. Hey Rob!.... Don't know what you mean with this comment??? ... but I guess humour is different for all of us... just like the spelling... and meaning of flow! Just a thought!

    Good painting!
    Bruce

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  17. As an artist I wonder if there can ever be a more powerful feeling then producing a painting depicting something that we feel so strongly connected to as you have so wonderfully shown us here. Thank you for the glimpse of your process in full flow! Wonderful painting Bruce!

    Jeffrey

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  18. Hi there Jeffrey!... It is always a pleasure to share ideas and images with "You"!

    It is indeed exhilarating and a powerful feeling... "when the planets seem to align themselves"... from the soul within... to the tip of one's brush... and finally to the canvas! That is pure joy... indeed!

    Finding joy is a common goal in human existence and it can be found in many different ways. Sharing our joy with "Others" should be another goal as well!

    Thank "You" for sharing our common joy and passion... so openly... and regularly Jeffrey!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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