My plan for these blogs has been to alternate between what I’ve been up to artwise and the bigger picture of art history. It’s worked pretty well…so far.
But this past couple of weeks since returning from Chicago I’ve had the dickens of a time getting my teeth into some ‘big’ work. Yes, I was under the weather on my return, yes, we had guests for a week but really my excuses are pretty lame. I have been in the studio but like I say, it’s been more about putskying around than getting my hands really dirty. So I don’t have a lot of artwork to share with you.
Okay I have done some sketches of ideas for a series of paintings on gallery goers and a thumbnail of a rose prior to video taping the creation of a small pastel:
On a cloudy day last weekend (ie. no chance of going out to plein air paint), my Mum and I persuaded my Dad to sit for us and that was great fun as well as a challenge (it’s been awhile since I attempted a portrait from life). Here’s the result:
It felt soooooo good to be doing something.
I also made a video of myself pastelling a rose (the one in the sketch above) which may or may not make it to YouTube. Still have to decide on that.
I also experimented with applying pastel dustings (the pastel that drops to the tray on the easel as I work on sanded paper) to paper and sealing it with acrylic medium. Kinda cool but not sure where these pieces are going.
I was so inspired by the work I saw at The Art Institute of Chicago – large canvases, confident brushstrokes – that I wanted to get right into something. So I gessoed a big canvas:
Yup there it sits, the blank canvas that I am just itching to paint. So why am I not doing anything? So many choices as to subject matter? Plain old fear of the blank canvas? Wanting to do something worthwhile? Probably all of the above.
Can you feel my frustration??
It’s so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.
~ Paul Cezanne
So that’s where it’s at. I’m bound and determined to get stuck in and unstuck this week! Wish me luck.
On that lovely note, I’ll love you and leave you 🙂
Thanks for reading, truly.
Until next time,
~ Gail
PS. My Dad preparing to model…..
10 thoughts on “The Big Blank Canvas…Seriously!”
I really like the portrait of your father – so well done. He looks a bit like Sigmund Freud – great!
I am curious how you do this thing with the “gathered pastel dust”. Do you put the acrylic medium first onto the canvas or whatever and then drizzle the dust over it or how do you do it??? I like the way it looks. I have used the dust before to colour a sanded paper before painting and of course I make sticks – I kind of collect the dust colour coordinated – as much as possible.
I wish you much luck for this week.
Thanks Karin for the compliment.
About the pastel dust….so what I did was put some medium on 140lb paper. Then sprinkled the pastel dust on it in various ways (I did four pieces in all). Then I dribbled medium over the dust (since it was NOT staying!) and then took a palette knife and smeared it over. I used matte or gloss medium. In the black experiment (the one shown) I used both which gave a nice contrast between shine and matte. I have dust sort of collected in colour in yogurt tops along the tray of my second easel. I figured one day I was going to tip one over before I could get it all into jars hence the experiment!
Thanks for the good luck – there’s now paint on that canvas – YAYYYYYY!!
You really captured your father in this charcoal drawing……such a handsome man!
Thank you Kathie! And yes, he is a handsome man. This portrait shows the sterner, more serious side.
Hi Gail,
loved your blog this morning.
the sketches of gallery viewing are fabulous!
the portrait of your dad was great but must say he is so animated in life a portrait can’t tell the whole story. I think this is true of all portraits.
here’s my idea for the big white canvas. get the hugest brushes you can find, put the canvas on the floor and with loose paint put down three really bold strokes.
then back up on the easel and see what it says to you. oh yes, maybe rotate the canvas a few times before going in for a second round.
I wish you lived next door! I would love to watch.
cheers, Shirlee
Thanks so much Shirlee!! Glad you like the gallery visiting sketches. Now to make them into paintings! You are right about my Dad. I think a longer portrait has to try to tell the whole story but that takes some mastery! I’ll need to do a whole heap more 🙂
Shirlee, today I put the canvas on the floor, grabbed my biggest brush, mixed up a whole heap of paint and POW! went at it! I didn’t do it quite as slowly as you suggested – the music made me work faster!
It would be lovely if you lived next door. I get so much inspiration from you.
It all starts with just one mark!!!!!! Go girl!
You are sooooooo right Susan. Marks on the canvas today :-)))))
A blank sheet can be intimidating.
I am reminded of a story told by David Mekelburg (a wonderful calligrapher who never received his due name recognition) about studying with then Sister Mary Corita (Kent). The students were all sitting paralyzed in front of their $10/sheet Arches paper trying to work up their nerve. She walked between them (as sisters were famed for doing) with a fat sumi-e brush full of ink flicking big splots of ink on their not-yet-masterpieces.
“There. It’s ruined,” she said. “Now you can start.”
Good luck.
Dana
Thanks for the great story Dana! I must remember it!
Thanks for the good luck wishes – there’s paint on the blank canvas today :-)))