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?

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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.

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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

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