The Finishing Touches...

Banquet   oil/canvas   20 x 60 x 1.5

for me are done lightly and sparsely.  I decided to smooth out the patchy background as I feel that the texture interfered with the business of the foreground.  Particular colors were pulled out using pure pigment, those on my original palette (selected in the pre-planning stage) that had become too subdued:  cadmium yellow; cadmium red and blue-violet.  More yellow-green was pulled out in all of the leafy areas.  Done.

With this work, a "project", I spent more time in the planning stage.  Fewer risks were taken.  Fewer changes were made.  I have a theory that the more "stuff" (forms) are in a painting, the less freedom can be expressed throughout.  Nothing outrageous was performed.  The destruction parts were very subtle.  I am satisfied.  Banquet.

The Fifth and Sixth Passes...

Banquet...fifth and sixth passes

were carried out with the intent of bringing the work up to my own personal sense of aesthetics.  Up to this point, I had been primarily concerned with reality....describing the individual elements as well as using hard and soft edges to initiate a flow.  The painting had been drying over the weekend.  Large transparent cad yellow pale and blue-violet strokes were added vertically and rhythmically, primarily to offset the horizontal nature of the work.  But also to bring the corners in....to stop the action somewhat at the ends of the canvas.  And, also to break up the tightened restraints of the reality painting.  I also decided that the background and foreground white cloth were too similar in value, so I stroked in a darker tint mix with terra rosa to the background, in a patchy way to emulate the look of plaster.  Now we are cooking, so to speak.

The Fourth Pass...

Banquet...fourth pass...one day...fine tuning

was spent in fine tuning that which had already been considered...only detail work.  More definition in places.  Reestablishing shapes that had run amuk.  This took one day.  I knew that bigger changes were in store down the road as larger more important concepts such as harmony, temperature, movement and overall feel had yet to be considered.  I was still playing it safe at this point....coloring in the lines, so to speak.

In looking at these last two small images, in fact, no changes are distinctly noticeable.

The Third Pass...

Banquet...third pass...five days...more description

took five days of work.  More description.  But not everywhere....by this point I had a fair idea of the horizontal flow and the rhythmic pattern that would, hopefully, lead the eye around the composition.  But we artists know that with every gain there is a loss.  Sometimes wonderful passages were edited, sacrificed, for the whole.  At this point, the loss for me was the dissipation into pieces-parts, almost too much reality for me.  Preparation for a bit of chaos, a bit of destruction that had to be done for the sake of simplicity.  Too many things.  Too much itty bitty.  Too many words in the story.

The Second Pass...

Banquet...second pass

required more description, more attention to values and more attention to color temperature.  The long horizontal format is a bit of a different animal.  In working from left to right, I found that I was losing energy toward the end.  Fatigue sets in.  Things must be harmonized.  After the first pass, there was an abundance of dark values on the left....much lighter on the right.  This must all be balanced, in addition to beginning to set up a rhythm between the forms.  At this point, I was also determining which edges needed to be hard, and which soft.  It is definitely more difficult to achieve an all-over harmony given this format.  Carry on.

The First Pass...

Banquet...first pass

was completed by striking in local color and getting a feel for just where forms are positioned as well as to begin to understand the complex relationships between the forms.  I decided to forgo the view from a particular vantage point, deciding, instead, to view all forms as if I were standing in front of each.  Perspective has lost its extreme influence.  I will have to use rhythm to move us around the picture plane.  The background was painted in a light tint of terra rosa to simulate textured plaster walls.  I did not cover it completely, choosing, instead, to let small patches of the cadmium yellow under-painting to shine through.  None of these decisions is resolute.  Some of my earlier choices will be negated as the work progresses.

The Block-In,

Banquet...block in

for me, consists of a minimum number of lines that form a rhythmic pattern across the canvas.  Some artists use vine charcoal.  I use a very small brush and a liquidy turpentine mixture of an earth tone.  Some artists spend a great deal of time on this step, being certain that each form is in the right place and that sizes and measurements are fairly correct.  I find that spending too much time on the block-in not only neutralizes my enthusiasm for the painting part, but also reduces the amount of freedom in painting that I have...which is optimum for me in the creative process.  And so, I forgo lots of measuring and exactitude which allows for the freedom I crave.  The bad news is that not everything is in the "right" place and not everything is the "right" size.  Adjustments will need to be made.  Things will stay more flexible, more fluid.  And that is all right by me.

Preparation...

setting the mood with a toned canvas for the Loretta Paganini painting project

is a good thing and helps to propel us toward success no matter what the endeavor.  Sure, I enjoy the spontaneous painting that I often do, but in more complex projects, I like to ease my way into the project with planning and sketches.  Today I begin a large canvas of bountiful fruits and vegetables that is being done in collaboration with the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking and Culinary Arts.  The canvas was toned with a rich warm and buttery yellow that, hopefully, will peek through other layers.  I purchased all of my ingredients and combined them with items from my own kitchen to create a very long still life set up on my patio last week.  I photographed and re-photographed all of the items.  Painting from a live set up will not be possible due to the immensity of the painting as well as the organic nature of the items.  Here I go!

Now....all I need are some lemons.