Old Studio, Brooklyn NY
Sometimes I get the urge to revisit paintings. I loved this painting. Loved everything about the production of this piece. From the moment my pencil hit the canvas I was in complete bliss. Everything seemed to flow perfectly and I worked into the morning hours on it and then left my studio satisfied and very happy. (Step-by-step).
Personal life then took over and I slowly lost the happiness I had for it. It was the very last oil painting I ever did in Brooklyn and as it dried I felt all the negative energy of my old studio seep into it. Days went by and then weeks and then the paint on my palette dried solid. The piece was never finished because I couldn't stand to look at it. It was haphazardly chucked in a box along with other art supplies when I packed up the studio and left for Pennsylvania. It lay on a shelf in the cold basement in the new house for months till one night I had to move it to get to my blank canvases.
It was then that I fell back in love with it. It was brought into the kitchen where it was propped on the counter. I'd look at it while doing dishes. I kept giving myself the same crit over and over and knew I should have used a real model and not just pulled something out of my head. It was missing more than just refinement and it wasn't till my best friend Char came in for a visit that it got what it needed. She had pointed out that the woman looked more like an angel laying there than a woman. It was at that moment I knew exactly what the piece was missing. After an hour of additions I felt the piece had finally come to finish. It's now the first piece people visiting my kitchen see and it's one of my favorites, even with it's heavy strokes and incorrect fabric placement. Yeah, it's missing the hands. I know....
I believe it's become one of my favorites because it has opened the door to something new for me and I can't get new images out of my head. New explorations of new subjects and new ideas are swirling and although I am most comfortable working small I've gone super large with this next piece. It too will be an angel. This time however, I must get a real model.
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