When you have lots of painted flowers stacked about and real ones in vases sitting nearby as well, sometimes the real and the artificial get all jumbled together. In the view above the real flowers blend right into the receding painted ones.
adjacent things
I love the intersections in my studio. The corner of a still life painting abuts the flower power fabric background of the still life table, and both adjoin the little drawing of a lotus that hangs on the side of the book cabinet just because.
There are all these natural abstractions lying about. Like the parts of the unfinished paintings that wait in the queue.
seeing red
Different painting on the easel today. Yesterday’s painting was a large still life. I put paint on nearly every square inch of its 48 x 36 inch surface. Yesterday’s paint surface is tacky so while that one dries, I take up this smaller painting. I like switching from one painting to another. It keeps my thoughts lively.
I’m working from drawings, but rather than use the actual drawings I find it more convenient to use my computer —
And there are cheerful things in the studio to look at whenever I look up from my work.
But here’s the guest of honor. The painting is in a middle phase. Lots of stuff is already there, but everything needs to be gussied up.
So, that’s my day.
Shy Koi
My conundrum as I draw my koi daily is how I continue writing my blog. Drawing the same subject again and again is not a tedious exercise. On the contrary, I find that the drawings are all different. They lead me into different directions. The drawings take on a life of their own. And when the ensemble is complete, and I put them together, I think the variation will be an intriguing as the consistency of theme.
Well, the real koi manage to be interesting every day. They are the stars of their pond. So my art-imitating-life versions should be able to hold their own if I do my job right.
But. You knew there was another shoe to drop …. I’m not saying that one cannot write about these things. A great writer could probably write about the koi every day just as I draw them. But I can’t. My koi are shy. I cannot do this and chew gum too. I can draw them and find them fascinating hour by hour. But I cannot fathom how to put that into words. Indeed, if I could do it with words, why paint?
Painting is painting, and writing is writing.
So, I have got to find other ways to write about art, other topics to draw, while the koi swim somewhere silently in the background dapple light of their lovely pond.
The drawing above is 45 x 60 inches. It’s the pond I’ve been fishing lately for several posts.
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