My artwork will be in a group show this August which amazing artist Robbin Robertson Polter arranged for 5 artists at Russ and Co., in Central Austin. It's a three story building, but I will still have to enter paintings with size restrictions, so am in the process of creating much smaller work than I'm used to. To that end, I purchased smaller palette knives and ordered 9x12, 11x14 and 18x24" oil primed linen canvases to work on these next 2 weeks. My first attempt at painting from our week at the beach is a very bright "South Texas Beach", which is 18x24". I wanted to work "large" first, much like the Irises that I did in June. I tend to work out the design and information much better in a larger format and then can condense it into the smaller painting easier. I doubt that many painters work that way, but it works for me, since I primarily work with a palette knife (some day I'll write about that). I do love, love, love the oil primed linen substrate! The colors don't sink into the canvas and are so vibrant! I may have to restrain myself a bit more, now that they show in all their glory. Nothing subtle about this painting!
The problem with having a little dog with new health issues (and the resulting vet visits), and a delightful social life, is that painting time takes a backseat. But, I truly thought that I could bang out another winner of a painting even if I only had short sessions in which to paint it every day. The error in my thinking there was that I wasn't thinking! I had an idea for a painting but hadn't thought it through, so I spent 2 out of 3 days of painting wandering all over the canvas and getting increasingly frustrated that my very first thoughts on this painting were 1)not solid enough to have a good start and 2)weren't working for this subject.
I was trying to emulate the vibrant color style of the previous painting, "South Texas Beach", which had worked so well for that subject. But, I couldn't see where to go with it in this painting. In the end, it's possible that the underpainting peeking through will add some vibrance but I'm not sure that it was worth the time wasted getting to this place (and still not done!). It will get finished this weekend and I will have to promise myself to spend at least 2 hours a session and have a solid idea beforehand of where I want to go with the painting. Like writers who meander all over the page before they finally learn to stick to their outline and edit their work, I need to have a good statement going in.
