Sunday, November 4, 2012

Jordan's pitcher

I have been home a lot this week due to the storm on the east coast, so I have experimented a bit.  I have long suspected that there is a more streamlined strategy for making small paintings than I have used previously, so this week, with time on my hands, I decided to try something new.  This was a three stepper.  First pass in large blocks of local color thinned only with turpenoid so that it would dry quickly.  Second, thicker paint, adjustment of colors and values, but still pretty general.  And today - the final addition of detail.  I know. This is not a new way of going about making paintings - but it has never been my way which has been less thought out, less directed, messier and surely less efficient.  Not that making paintings needs to be efficient - in fact, I don't actually think it should be efficient.  I just wanted to see whether I could stay on track.   There is another painting coming one of these days - a drapery study, but I can already feel my resolve to stay structured slipping away.  Anyway - this is a 6 x 8 inch painting of the pitcher that Jordan so sweetly gave me as a birthday present back in September.