Fast & Furious ...

If someone had told me that I would have produced six paintings in two days (essentially within 9 hours), I would have suggested they had consumed more than a few glasses of red wine.

Afterall, this is the "artist" who has yet to produce a single finished work this year.

And, in looking at the pieces posted, some might suggest the pieces are still not finished. That is likely true. But it was the process that I find interesting enough to continue pursuing. At least to a certain extent. (More on that a little later).

Took 45 minutes

The source of my creative explosion was a workshop I took in Rising Sun, IN over the past weekend (June 15-16), featuring New York City artist, Patti Mollica. I have included one of Patti's works in this blog posting to demonstrate, as well as to illustrate my previous comment. (Again, more on that shortly).

The purpose was to put paint on canvas in the manner of the title of the workshop -- "Fast, Bold and Loose." The concept, while in execution, clearly works. It is somewhat deceptive, however, because the actual work, or time consumption, goes in before the actual paint starts flying.  Coming from a commercial art background, Patti was "forced" to think in terms of conceptual art or breaking down images to common value elements. Three elements in fact. Determine your darkest dark, determine your lightest light and a shade between. (Gosh, where, as artists have we heard that before!) It is, however, always good to see how that concept is applied. Block out those three values in sketches before you start painting. The sketch that the artist finally finds most pleasing, in turn, becomes the paint's roadmap. 

To demonstrate, below is Patti's Still Life,  then the Sketch, then the Final Product (which took her about 15-20 minutes to actually paint):

 What that sketch does, in essence, is render the color of the paint inconsequential. As long as you maintain or stay within the value family! That is really the key to the result. But, that is also, the purpose and the value (pun intended) of the sketch.

Value Painting

Took about 45 minutes

Another thing I did learn is that when someone says, "You have 45 minutes to do your painting ... " was that my initial reaction was PANIC! So you rush like crazy, slapping paint on the canvas when it hit me (not the paint ... hehe), but rather that I needed just to take a minute or so and actually think about what colors to put where and how. That brief pause actually made the painting process slow down because now I had a plan.


The result was that by the time Patti got to -- "you have 15 minutes to do the next painting ... " -- I actually didn't fret about it at all.

15 minutes later ....

The final painting on one canvas was actually two paintings, that we produced in something like 30 minutes or so. 

Would I recommend this workshop? Absolutely. An artist who was also a great teacher -- and that's really appreciated;  great patience, great encouragement. And she likes to say "Squint!" a lot. All the things you really want in a workshop setting.

Now to address the observation in the first part of this blog -- "...  interesting enough to continue pursuing. At least to a certain extent ..."

At some point, an artist has to fit any process he or she may have learned in a workshop into their own way of thinking. Some people refer to that as an artist's "vision", others call it the artist's "voice." Me? I think it's simply style. What makes you as an artist unique?

When you walk into a gallery, you look at a painting and say, "That's a Patti Mollica." It's distinct. It's her style. It's no different than John Smolko (see earlier blog). You can walk in to a gallery and recognize John's style immediately.

Ultimately, that's what we, as artists, want to achieve. And, really, what we should strive for. Do I want to be the next Patti Mollica or the next John Smolko? Of course not. 

I don't truly think I'm there yet. That's part of the journey. 

Future Blog Postings

As some of you who follow this site know, I had the goal of posting about once a week or so. With the lame amount of work I've been producing this year, that hope has been blunted to say the least. Plus I am now working six days a week, and that beats up my time. It's not ironic that I have been soooo very productive the last several days since I took off Monday. It gave me almost 5 days days off in a row for the first time in I don't know how long. I worked on art more than 6 hours each day and it's amazing what you can accomplish!

My hope now is to post on a semi-regular basis (that's PC for irregular). If you are on My Friends post or on the email list, I will send the latest missives to you as they develop. If you are not on my list, please join up! If you have a blog and would like to have it posted on my site, please let me know. I will be more than happy to give fellow artists as many "props" as I can.