Artplane Workshop at Esalen

Just returned from another Artplane Workshop. I don't think Jennie and I have ever worked with a group of people who managed to paint so much in 5 days. Every night there was a group who stayed up till 2 am working in the "Art Barn" Painting is usually so solitary. I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group. They also ate more chocolate and drank more wine than other groups in the past. I already miss them.

Top Photo, Amy Johnson, 2nd year Artplane student painting mid week.

Christina Byrne and Elizabeth Hudson working late in the afternoon.

Bottom Photo, Jennie Oppenheimer giving an end of the week critique to the students.

Searching Continues....

I have been so busy lately. Here is how this one went...it got very dark for awhile.....

Starting

Tonight I just decided to skip pretty much everything I usually do and try, in one session to go from blank white canvas to something that is graphically strong.  I can't re paint too much as the under color is wet and it darkens the light. Quickly lay in what a finished painting could look like from very far away. Not even sure how much of this will stay like this but it did seem like it wants to be this kind of a painting. It's as if it already knows what it is going to be. 

The Art Plane

Sometimes the very thought of making or writing something can become the barrier. When it becomes like this I just start. Like now. I have no clue what to write, just the growing frustration that I am not. Why this plays out time and time again for me (and I  suspect others) always amazes me. It eludes me. The longer it is put off the bigger it becomes-the fact that nothing is happening-and then finally I just start.  I don't think the mind can create AND procrastinate at the same time. Creativity usually wins out and then suddenly it's no longer an issue. Amazingly, the doing is the antidote. This relief coupled with the stimulation of what is happening on the canvas or paper shifts everything.  Time slows down, concern gives way to gentle excitment. I call it the Art Plane...it always felt to me like this space or place was a distinctly separate plane. It's always available. All the time. Sometimes I can get in it but mostly I'm on the ground looking up at it wondering why I'm not. Spending too long out of it, at least for me, is not a good thing. 

Shades of Gray

 I have been intermittently working on this painting for about a week....not crazy about this yet.

Although when I look at the post from before this seems way better. I usually don't have an opportunity to look backwards. 

Just Shapes

Arranging and re arranging shapes in  a square could take up days and days of my time. I try and look at it and see if it can get it any more poignant or more noticeable. How can this be more perfect, more thoughtful, more memorable?--Does this feel how I want it to, even if I don't fully understand the feeling yet? Without subject matter that relates to anything specific, these kind of paintings are deliciously open. They are, for me, the most difficult. Sometimes I play around with a jpeg of the image on the computer to see if I can problem solve the particular painting if I get stuck.....This one below is working now, although the actual painting is more dull and drab than this jpeg. This is where I want to go with it tomorrow. 

  

Three

I went off on a bit of a tangent and did these small square 24" x 24" paintings just using minimal color. I tried to work on them all together and imagined them all hanging in one group. I wanted to see how simple I could get them so from across the room they looked interesting and graphic but then upon closer examination the texture and the subtle markings would reveal themselves.

I write or scratch words in my pictures which are often metaphorical or mean nothing at all but they do give the "idea" of communication even though it is vague. A word is so specific and actually really powerful so I tend to use ones that are obtuse or diluted by an overlay of texture or even upside down or backwards. 

Temptation

For Valentines day I bought my daughters  small tins of gourmet jellybeans. Hannah left  for a week on a school field trip to Quebec and accidentally left it in my studio. This is a temptation too great for any person, especially me already weakened by the prospect of facing a difficult painting. I have already gone through the mandarin orange ones...incredible and now I discovered the pina colada ones...It is only Monday and she won't be back till next Sunday. 

There will be no happy ending here. It is simply too late for that.

Overturned Stones

This idea of crappy painting in the beginning always reminds me of Anne Lamott, the Bay Area writer who said "I always do a shitty first draft" I think about that a lot when beginning a painting. It's much easier and in the end, because you don't care, there sometimes results 

some remarkable passages of paintings. Although then those become precious and then I spend all morning painting around the good parts which in time wrecks them. So I try to extend the period of time that I "don't care" and try not to think too hard. All parts of the painting at all times are open to change or destruction. No parts should be off limits. I think about how sensitive I can be..How can this feel more raw, more alive? What the hell am I doing? Sometimes I feel like someone is going to blow a whistle and cart me off to a more typical job. One with boundrys, a coffee machine and maybe even an  elevator I can take up and down to work. Total insecurity coupled with absolute certainty. This much I know to be true. 

Mermaid

In the beginning I just lay down whatever I am thinking about...

trying not to judge whatever it is or wether it looks good or not.

This painting is at the stage that I don't really like too much

of what is presently there. It feels simplistic, thin and overly 

decorative. This is early in the painting process-there is not much 

paint on this painting. Once I start covering up and re working 

the painting it generally gets better. Most of this will probably 

change. I find this the hardest part and it kills me to stick it 

on this blog as generally it's nice to only show the best work 

as if you never make duds. Often I find the paintings of 

others, when they are not working, the most interesting.

The Littlest Song

This is where I ended up. This was an interesting 

painting for me. The darks had to be really strong  as 

they are not particularly dynamic shapes. I wanted the eye

to bounce around  and then have the quieter elements softly 

converse... Two conversations going simultaneously. This 

composition almost feels musical to me.

I was listening to Jolie Holland singing "The littlest Birds"

which inspired the title. A fabulous song if you have never

 heard it before..

.YouTube - The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds

Late Bloomers

A recent article, passed along by a friend, written by Malcolm Gladwell

(The Tipping Point), illuminates this idea that some artists are 

fiercely direct and quick with their art. No experimentation, no 

search- just an incandescent manifestation of work--Picasso. On 

the other hand, there are those, the "late bloomers" (me too) that 

sort of grope our way along. Never really sure, but trial and error, 

and repeated mistakes eventually lead to some clarification, some results.

Gladwell asserts that Cezanne was one of these types. Never satisfied, 

persistently frustrated, although steadily getting better over the course 

of his life. The story goes that when Ambrose Vollard, the sponser of 

Cezanne's first one man show, at age 56, hunted down Cezanne in Aix 

"He spotted a still life in a tree, where it had been flung by 

Cezanne in disgust."Gladwell emphasizes the vital importance that 

the outside patrons , friends, family etc. are for the survival of these 

kind of "late bloomers" I have a hunch this is true for most artists. 

How many times has a friend said "I love this!" as they pull a painting 

out of the garbage can, instantly redeeming it to one of your recent 

favorites.  The article ends "We'd like to think that mundane matters 

like loyalty, steadfastness, and the willingness to keep writing 

checks to support what looks like failure have nothing to do with 

something as rarefied as genius. But sometimes genius is anything 

but rarefied; sometimes it's just the thing that emerges after 

twenty years of working at your kitchen table"

Red White and Blue

I am staring at this painting on the bottom and I 

can't figure what is bugging me about it for the 

longest time and then I realize it's the colors. I 

hate when a painting starts going red white and blue.

I don't know what it is about those colors--I even like

our flag  since we elected Obama....but anyway, 

I shifted the colors. When your at a very bright 

color it always amazes me how much you can 

grey it down and it still seems so bright. Color 

is funny that way. The red is SO red in this painting 

that almost everything has to quiet down or else

it's going to be very tutti fruitti. And then again, now

I see the before and after I am not sure which is 

better....which would mean that I went possibly 

backwards all evening. Hmmm.

Surface and Time

This is a detail from a painting I just finished. Sometimes 

parts of paintings are better than other parts. This kind

of density of surface is what I am after. Shapes and forms

disappearing and emerging simultaneously. Similar to 

life...memories fading and new experiences arriving,

never perfectly clear, always changing and often just out 

of reach.

New Years Day 2009

Rocks on the shore of  Stinson Beach, California.

Starfish

Today we went to the newly opened Academy of Sciences. So many people, so many exhibits...this 11 legged starfish

was encased in resin along with a whole slew of other creatures along a back wall. They actually were plaques that acknowledged those who gave large financial gifts to the institution. The fact that this was floating all alone in a foreign white void, apart from it's normal habitat was striking to me. Lost in whiteness, but so exquisitely beautiful. This notion, pulling from nature, re ordering, re presenting so that ordinary things can be seen new again is potent. I try for this in my art.

Dog and Painting

. 

I like this painting or at least the start of it, but then I didn't and ended up painting it all red....This is Maizy my dog who runs trails with me.

Olema Barn

"Olema Barn" 84" x 72" 

Barn in West Marin

"Between Lines" 40" x 36"

These  old barns are all over West Marin.

The subtlety of the lines and textures of the boards

contrasting with the hard darks of missing ones

seems to give these buildings a quiet strength.

Studio Work in Progress

I work on about 7 paintings at the same time.

My process involves layering of paint and since it is oil 

I have to let it dry before it can be  covered over. I am so impatient

and so all I can do is start working on another one while the first one is drying.

It's best for me to not work too long on any one painting on one particular day.

After awhile I can't see the painting clearly. Today went well as I like the way these paintings 

are going. The three on the right are strong starts--the green one on the left is already totally 

repainted. I liked this start but couldn't figure out how to finish it. so I covered it up with paint.

"Kalahari"

'KALAHARI' 60' X 60' OIL AND BEESWAX ON PANEL

BAOBAB TREE IN BOTSWANA

Painting when you feel different creates different paintings. I wanted to make a painting that felt like but not necessarily was a representation of the feeling of Botswana. The rawness and extreme earthiness of the place was what I was after. I cannot look at this painting without it reminding me of Africa. This painting came very easily. The palette here is different for me. 

I kept asking people in Botswana how old are these magnificent trees were...no one seemed to know as no one has ever been alive long enough to see one die from old age. It's possible these trees are several thousand years old. This one tree was here when the pyramids were being built. It has a hole in it half way up that was used as a kind of post office so early explorers could leave messages that would be taken back to Europe by others who happened to pass on their return home.