04 June 2008
Cook inlet panorama : back to the burnt stick
I should have read the slogan on my own website. After a really committed day painting yesterday I felt really uneasy about the work once I brought it in from the bright light to the interior space where it will be shown. The painting was active and strongly marked but the tonalities and colours were flat and muddy.
Not exhibitable.
I went to bed knowing that but not admitting it, woke up in the wee hours (broad daylight of course) with Messrs E & B Jeebie tapping on my shoulder. Then I realised where the road ahead lay. I’ve been doing a plein air study, not a finished piece of work. I only got here less than two weeks ago, so how else could it be ? Once I thought about using studio time I felt a lot better, and will also be able to work in parallel on the printmaking I want to show to Bill Brody. It suddenly all felt a lot better. I could honour the plein air study for what it is - the record of how overwhelming this place is.
Sometimes this city boy can stray too far from his comfort zone.
So back to the DNA of my working methods. I put away the painting and had another intensive day of drawing. I love burnt sticks. Doing studies of the sky elements that shape this landscape. Trying to look at the landscape upside down where the sky is more visually ’solid’ than the land.
That’s better, everything really does start with drawing.
(1) 4 June 2008 at 8:09 pm
steve
In a cheap, commoditised era, it’s always great to see someone with such high standards, especially when people like me look at your ’studies’ and think, “I’d be proud to produce that”.
(2) 5 June 2008 at 12:49 am
doug
Thanks for keeping in touch Steve - I really value your company on this extraordinary adventure. People who don’t look for a living sometimes mistake the meaning of a “study” - It goes way beyond what we all got forced to do at school
It’s more capturing than that, of the subject but most of all of yourself. Let’s check with Trish about the Latin derivations of ’study’ but here’s mine : devotion, zeal, pursuit, eagerness. Devotion and attention are really the most important parts of this job, which is why I love John Constable’s studies in the V&A, and the Käthe Kollwitz charcoals and Ronald Searle’s drawings from the Burma Railway. We walk alongside remarkable footsteps my dear friend, and my little Alaskan wobble a couple of days ago needs to keep them in mind.