Category: In Progress

Quite some time ago I took to the task of developing a recent drawing into a painting. I found it at times a struggle to understand the dynamic aspects the drawing had projected for me and I found myself wrestling to capture some of those same nuisances within the painting. I laboured over this painting for over six months trying to reconcile the image. At times friends would tell me to let it go, maybe it just isn’t going to work. I distracted myself with other visual works till I could feel confident to approach the painting again.

I was determined to find a way to resolve it, endless revisions were layered over the painting. Luckily I do not paint thick layers in my work allowing me to make revisions without the evidence of the previous attempts. It would have been easier to abandon this work, but I needed to resolve it, sometimes adversity tells you more than an image that comes together quickly. Part of the creative struggle is to find a way to mediate the difficult tasks and learn from them. I kept revisiting it, at times just starring at it trying to find the clues. When I finally tackled the contour white lines again, the painting found a resolution.

I thought about documenting the various stages but found myself trying to reconcile the work rather than documenting my struggle. In my own mind I saw the evolution and the variation of the modeling of both the figure and the contour overlay and hopefully learned from it.

I often tell my students that the work they are creating is just a moment in time, that they will continue to make more in the future and perhaps for this moment, this is the best that a particular piece will be. I think over all I am happy with the way I resolved the work, but as I say to my students, this is just a moment and in this moment I think this worked out.

My approach to creating works of art is almost always methodical.  Although I enjoy some measure of spontaneity most concepts are flushed out during the creative process.  On occasion paintings are created after I have fully realized an idea/composition in graphite form.  Some would argue then why paint the image.  For myself I believe painting is not drawing.  The marks with a pencil are not replicated in the passages of paint and in the act of painting things can change.  Brushstrokes are very much different then ones you create with a pencil.  Painting isn’t drawing!

Choice of colour and scale can change the viewer’s response as well.  This also makes the relationship with me during the execution of a painting very different.  The drawings are tight and the paintings are a bit looser.

Below is a fully render drawing entitled A Sun to Dissipate, beside it is the image so far in its painted form, although very similar there are some differences to my approach and hopefully when it is completed, at the very least it will be as engaging as the drawing.

The figures head seems a bit larger in the painting, but then again it isn’t near finished. I will post the image when it is complete.