Color Field With Form.

The Addition Of Form.

Detail of painting in progress.

Color Field painting does not have form, so I have deviated big time by adding the faces, the cactus, and now these triangular shaped elements which represent a floral design. Why these shapes?  Delores Patencio, the face in the painting,  lived and worked in the Southern California Desert where these cactus grow, and she used shapes like these on many of her baskets.  This painting is all about Delores Patencio.

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE

Color Field Inspiration And More.

This Is Where It Goes.

The other day a person who follows this blog asked me about the Indian Women series of paintings which I started over a year ago, wondering where I was with this project. The answer:  on hold.  Late last spring I stopped working on the portraits due to frustration with the most recent.  Do you remember the portraits?  

So just exactly what does this have to do with using Color Field painting as an inspiration?  The verbal comment and recent work with Color Field has helped me break through my frustration with the women.  I had a canvas that was partially painted, partially over-painted, and then left to simmer last Spring.  

I put this project aside after painting several faces on paper, very quickly, using a limited palette to get myself to loosen up, working towards a more contemporary look.  The canvas and these paper pieces were just sitting in my studio, bothering me.  I had thought about using all of these faces together on one canvas but had not quite worked out how I wanted to accomplish this.  But since I have been working with Color Field I could now see what I should do.  

More layers of paint, cutting and ripping the paper, adding three of the paper faces, and additional detail has brought me to this point.  

I am painting every day, so this is coming together fairly quickly.  The woman is Delores Patencio who was a well known Cahuilla Indian Woman from the Coachella Valley, and when the painting is complete I will give more information about her and her work, so check back.  Isn't it crazy to see where a simple project, such as exploring Color Field painting can go?

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE

Color Field Continued.

Another Deviation.

An artist's mind is a playful and crazy place.  It's always moving, in every direction, so it is not always easy to stay the course.  Something seen, a comment heard, a fleeting thought can take an artist to a new place.  Such it is with me and this Color Field painting series.  

Detail

Beginning of a Color Field inspired painting.

Wait until you see what is happening now, and with this particular canvas you see pictured here.  I'll get to it in my next post.  It's all inspiration.

To Contact Me Click HERE

To Visit My Web Site Click Here

Color Field Painting with Found Objects

Can Found Objects Be A Part Of This?

Work in Process

See Where You Are.  That's the title of my book and in it I advocate not only looking around but taking the time to actually see what surrounds you. Look, see, observe, engage.  This thought has permeated my life and work. Because of this, I observe and see objects when I am walking, biking, hiking, rowing, in my kayak....you get it. Little things that have fallen or been dropped, washed up on a shore, litter even (well, it doesn't look like litter to me).   I am constantly picking up objects that appeal to me, knowing that they will some day be worked into a painting or become part of a sculpture.  The studio fills with all this wonderful and interesting stuff and it reminds me of that particular walk or ride and place.   

Found Objects

So here I am working, experimenting, with Color Field as an inspiration.  Remember that Color Field painting was a major step forward in abstract work, the first style to avoid a form or mass standing out against the background of the painting. The canvas was covered with pigment, conceived as one field, but adding found objects would be adding a form.  

All The Poppies In The Moat

After recent completion of the painting,  All The Poppies In The Moat, a shadow box canvas went onto my easel. Application of several pigments and scoring through the wet paint with a palette knife gave the canvas a color field appearance, but the inset box was calling for something three dimensional.  Would this still be considered a Color Field painting if I added actual objects? 

The beginning of the Color Field inspired painting on a shadow box canvas.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a container that held a few items picked up off a beach several years ago.  At one time these little items had been glued together to make a tiny little found object sculpture that sat on a shelf to remind me of a stroll along a white sand beach.... hmmmmm....  now looking at them in reference to this shadow box canvas sparked the idea of adding them to this painting.

Objects found on a beach.

Intuition had me reaching for a tube of Prussian Blue to emulate the color of the ocean, then a glaze of Quinacridone Gold to bring more life and energy to the canvas, and finally a high gloss varnish was applied to the entire surface.

After addition of Prussian Blue and Quinacridone Gold.

The edges of the canvas were painted with the blue and when turning the canvas to cover all edges with the pigment I realized the canvas appealed more to me turned sideways.

Canvas now turned sideways.

The found objects were added, a doll leg, a root section of kelp, sea shell, and a rusty smashed bottle cap.

Beach Walk

16 x 16

When I started this series of work I knew it might become something more than Color Field painting but had no idea what might happen.  This is only the second work in the series and already there is a deviation.  Though Color Field work was the beginning inspiration, the addition of found objects has made it something else all together.  Does it work?  I think so.

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE

Color Field Painting

The First Color Field Inspired Painting Is Complete.

It started with a bit of an 'Oh My' moment when I opened the drawers that hold my pigments to find very few. Oops....it was late at night and I wanted to paint.  Impossible to obtain additional paints at this hour. The drawers held only three colors:  Chromium Green Oxide, Duochrome Oceanic, and Red oxide.  I brushed on the green and then layered over a heavy application of the duochrome.  I left the room.

The next day I realized I wanted to add more light to the painting, it was early morning, so running out to the art supply store was not an option yet.  I remembered the left over wall paint in the garage which quickly made it's way into my studio and onto the canvas.

This was becoming an interesting challenge, the opportunity to create with what was at hand.  Slashing the Red Oxide across the canvas was a serendipitous movement, one that paid off with color tension and interesting movement.

 More layering of the wall paint brought definition to the  composition.

Wanting to retain minimal composition and allow the color field inspiration to continue led me to believe this painting was nearing completion, it just needed something more, a little something more.

Following intuition and color instinct, I knew the canvas was asking for another warm tone....all this cool green. Quinacridone Gold is one of my favorite pigments to use for glazing, so as soon as I could get my hands on a jar of this I brushed and rubbed it on some of the edges of the canvas. And that is it.  First Color Field inspired painting is complete. Now to begin another.

All The Poppies In The Moat

30 x 24

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE