These three paintings, all 24"
x 24", were begun several years ago, and each was given a single day’s work.
They were studio starts, painted from the model, but all the settings were
invented. Even the set-up for “Barbara In Her Studio” is a travesty. There was
no window behind the model, and the curved couch was, in reality,
a rectilinear pink bench.
After the initial session,
the paintings sat unfinished until this month. They were taken up again as
stop-gaps, to give me something to work on while I allowed two larger paintings
time to dry. After a few days, the smaller paintings took over and became the
focus of my attention.
Instead of a feeling of
distance, the long stretch between initial image-making and revision led to a
sense of continuity for me. The
paintings themselves make their own time.
………………………………………………………………………
The difference between the
first and last version of “Barbara In Her Studio” is the difference between a
portrait (albeit a clumsy start ) and the painting of a figure in an
interior. The initial image does have more of the model’s personality, but the
room surrounding her comes across as a framing device. What I wanted in the final
painting was an expression of the figure from the setting itself.
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| Barbara In Her Studio-Version 1 |
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| "Barbara In Her Studio"-oil on canvas, 24" x 24" |
Version 1 of "Green Dress" and the final painting seem like two
different species, but if you look closely, there are several intersecting
points. The pose has shifted, but some elements remain in spirit; the raised
arm is now the left arm, and the “Saturday Night Fever” stance has been
translated into an after-the-dance drinking song. (Or maybe she’s just doing
The Limbo). These two images reverse the process of “Barbara In Her Studio.”
What started as a figure in an interior turns into a raw form of portraiture.
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| Green Dress-Version 1 |
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| "Green Dress"-oil on canvas, 24" x 24" |
“ Nude Near Water” retained
its dreamlike quality from first to last. In spite of the title, the setting
remains ambiguous; wherever the chair is perched is as much a state of mind as
it is a precarious space. The digital image doesn’t convey the thickness of the
paint. Here, the color-shifts are meant to render emotionally correct flesh, in the figure as well as in the
water’s skin.
I’ve spent a long time
looking at this one, and though I’m done with it, it feels like I’m still
painting it. It’s important to me to craft the object, but at another level I
just want to remain there, in the process of painting.
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| Nude Near Water-Version 1 |
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| "Nude Near Water"-oil on canvas, 24" x 24" |
