Handed-ness Matters...

Paint Dancer Detail

no....not left or right.  I am referring to how we strike or caress the painting surface with our tools.  I believe that those of us with heavy hands need to learn how to caress the surface in appropriate passages.  And, likewise, those of us with a more timid approach, must learn to bravely become heavy handed and bolder when the work requires it.  I guess it seems similar to learning to play the piano....or any instrument for that matter.  Fortissimo.  Pianissimo.  Over the years I have found that, in general, it is more beneficial for me to lighten up my touch.  ( I am a natural heavy-hander).  A lighter touch provides more glide.  An energy that allows for more curve, more swerve.  When I recently experimented with gold leafing, I was so very surprised at the light touch required, with a soft brush using circular movement, to actually adhere the leaf to the adhesive.  (In my mind, there was a burnishing, a pounding effect....wrong)  A light touch allows for more free play and more movement.  To and fro.  Ebb and flow.  Push and pull.   All good.

Gross Motor Skills...

Paint Dancer (detail)

allow for freedom of expression in a large format.  Using our shoulder muscles rather than our hand/wrists; while standing up; using large brushes and wide markers and pens; and holding the brush loosely at the very tip of the handle  produce marks that are bolder and freer.  We feel a bit out-of-control at first, but practicing simple line-work such as a natural curve can up the confidence level.  OUT OF CONTROL CONTROL.  Small motor mark-making includes:  sitting down; finely sharpened tools; small brushes; choking up on the brush at the ferrule....all of these add up to CONTROL.   In our expressive drawing workshop, we gradually inched our way up to the gross motor mark-making.  Wonderful!


Painters who drop their brushes during my painting class are rewarded with cheering.  This means that the brush is being held lightly and not being over-controlled.

We got skeels.

Jolie Laide...

Paint Dancer (a self-portrait)   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

It is said that the French have an expression "jolie laide" that refers to unconventional beauty or an odd attractiveness.  (Literally it means "pretty ugly" which fails miserably in direct translation, as do most idioms). Other definitions have to do with personal grooming and other meaningless details.  I am guessing that this expression is more English than French in its origins and somewhat satisfies our desire to explain that amazing sense of enviable style possessed by the French.  For me, it implies much, much more....in fact, I give it my own meaning:  that of a combination of two polar opposites (beauty and ugliness), the combination of which provides soulfulness to our senses.  I am enamored with this notion and strive for it in my work.  The past has given us more than enough samples of paintings of beautiful women, beautiful bouquets and perfect-setting-sun landscapes.  Yawn.  It seems that many young male painters still perpetuate the notion that if-you-are-a-great-artist-than-you-will-paint-beautiful-women.  In this scenario, the work is then external, dependent upon the beauty of the sitter.  Yawn again.  For me, the paintings of tattooed bodies that lean more towards counterculture are a bit more interesting but still smack of surface value.  So, then, for me, a goal is to elevate the ordinary, to search for a bit of meaning and essence in the mundane and, hopefully, a bit of reaching inwards.  For this to occur, there must be, in my mind, a conjoining of the efforts of both the sitter as well as the painter. I am sticking my neck out here....a goal is just that....a goal....it is always striven for but not always reached.

This detail is from my self-portrait.  When shown at a critique, I was advised by more than one male artist to take out the evidence of aging, to make the portrait more narrowly youthful and beautiful.  But, I argued, that was the whole point of making the painting.  Several female artists were excited and supportive in my choice of what to include.  In my choice to honor the "jolie-laide", I have chosen to show my own self-portrait for fear that I might offend any of my other models.....for who wants to be jolie-laide in America?

Hands Down

Hands Detail - Paint Dancer

Why do we painters freeze up when it comes to hands? It could be because they are so complex, what with all of those joints and digits. Someone in the Saturday workshop asked me about hands and expressed how overwhelming they are! Part of the problem, I think, lies in the interference of our naming brain - the left brain. It is the part of our brain that organizes, categorizes and names. When our L-brain takes hold of the notion of "hand", it helps us to recall the 6-year-old notions of hands, all far to difficult to reproduce....it also recalls all of the times we have attempted and failed. In my opinion, we would benefit from the shift to the art-friendly R-brain, where the visual language exists only as visual....the hand becomes terrain, shades, lines and masses. Hands, for me, take a back seat to the overall rhythm of the picture, which is my goal. If it helps to support the movement, I count it in. The gesture of the hand is more important than any of the pieces/parts. Then, as I distill and simplify, only important parts of the hands are described, as supporting actors, so to speak. All artists are different, dependent on their personal aesthetic choices. Just yesterday, I perused some paintings by Daniel Greene....the hands are exquisite, in all of their veiny detail. He has determined what works for him, and I for me. The Art Spirit by Robert Henri is my art-bible.