Monday, October 11, 2010

Woman In Torn Jeans

This morning's plein air oil painting.

A bit about this painting:  This is painted from life, a 30 minute pose.  The model is lying on a blanket covered with a white sheet, on the grass. The time was close to noon, on a  hot day which started out clear. Dark clouds were moving in. Then, later in the afternoon and evening, came thundershowers.

I need to look at it again in a few days to see what still needs doing.  Already, parts of it stand out as needing repainting/reshaping.

One thing I learned at the Art Institute of Chicago last week  is that I now appreciate Gauguin.

When I first saw his work in person, it was at a special show of many of his works that traveled to the LA County Art Museum when I was about 11 years old.  I didn't like it at all.

This time, I visited a couple of his paintings at the Chicago Art Institute and I loved them, especially Day of the God, a dream/memory painting. ( For a good explanation of the painting, look here.)

8 comments:

  1. I like both, and you've made me like blue more than I usually do. But if I had to choose, I think Woman In A Black Hat is a bit more gripping.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this, this expressionism it speek so much to me, love the blue and purple!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is some thick paint. Great plane under the breast and and underarm. Thinking more Van Gogh then Gauguin, though both are aces in my book

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, I see you’ve changed your second paragraph a bit. I confess, I’d rather see change there than in the painting.... unless.... well, I suppose time will tell.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Does the subject determine the technique, or the technique define the subject?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, all.

    PA, yeah, the painting doesn't have Gauguin style, but it has a person dreaming, which is kind of like Gauguin when he came up with Day of the God.

    WM, now the description of the Gauguin has changed. I obviously don't get the concept of leaving well enough alone.

    AH,I was puzzling over how to answer this and my daughter said, "Just say the subject determines the technique." I say, they influence each other, but really both technique and subject are come from the artist: a work is kind of like a handprint, unique to the maker.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was curious, because you can play in many different styles. So I guess my question was, do you decide to paint in a particular style before you see the subject, or does the subject suggest the style.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AH, neither, consciously. I'm not thinking that hard when I paint. I'm just doing the best that I can at that time, with that subject and, in this case, within the time constraints. This was just a 30 minute pose, which is chump change for the way I like to apply paint.

    ReplyDelete