March 12, 2011

lost in the woods

painting segment 1

It was actually pretty great being disconnected for a week or so. I have discovered that I love not having the annoyance of a land line and that, with one of those antenna boxes, we get a couple of local stations and can therefore still watch the morning news (and see House on Monday evenings ... though I'm pretty sure that we're still doing that out of habit and it's only a matter of weeks before he jumps the shark). Due to crossed connections of the human sort, we were internet free for almost a week, which was weird at first, but I liked the way the traffic in my head slowed down because of it.

While waiting for the underpainting on a planned painting to dry I decided to noodle around with a landscape, something I haven't done for ages. I jumped in with both feet and spent a long time on it, only to abandon it in the final stages. But for probably the first time ever I don't feel a sense of failure. I realized about halfway through that there were serious compositional flaws (the result of no planning) but I was enjoying experimenting with different techniques. Maybe, because I was forced to soldier on without the easy distraction of my laptop beckoning, I had better perspective about the process. I've never painted a serious landscape in oil and in my head I was Tom Thompson in Algonquin Park, without the inconvenience of dying. I plan to take what I learned and try again soon and, with any luck, I'll be able to resist that siren call.

13 comments:

p said...

good to hear you had quiet slow time in your head and went for more experimental techniques...thats always good!

Ponita in Real Life said...

Slowing down is good... Hopefully once you are reconnected with the interwebz you can retain that slower momentum. And dying can be highly inconvenient, can't it!? ;-)

valerie walsh said...

this is so lovely :)

Hayden said...

I'm so much happier/calmer when I l stay off the internet - (tv already gone). But.... times like this weekend I'm online constantly, neurotically, checking the news 50 times a day to see what is happening w/ the nuclear reactors in Japan. Not healthy for me, but... it's what I do. As if by looking I can keep things from happening...

interesting that your whole perspective on this particular painting venture was altered by your increased calm.

INDIGENE said...

Beautiful art! It is amazing when we cut off the world a bit. We get down to just being ourselves and letting our true creativity flow. If this has compositional flaws, then we all need it! It's a beautiful piece. Glad you're doing better. Take care...

andrea said...

I seem to be unable to do anything really halfway so I'm finding that, like you, Hayden, I either need to be fully away from this thing or just giving myself over to it. This weekend it's been the latter! And Indigene, it's a long, horizontal painting so you can only see a corner. Very unforgiving if not tackled with some thoughtfulness, which I didn't! :(

asperezas said...

b e a u t i f u l :)
This little perspective shows that you are a great painter :)

Anonymous said...

Shades of old Tommy. So good to have you back here again. I always miss you.

Jimmy said...

Some interesting pictures amongst your collection. I have future words that would fit around the artwork if you are agreeable.

Drop me a line sometime.

andrea said...

Peras and Ian: You are the reasons I return!

Jimmy: I'm game. Looking at your blog at this very moment. It has some stellar words.

Murr Brewster said...

I have a place I go to because you couldn't connect to the internet or the world if you wanted to. You can walk a mile to a store. I knew this place would be an escape in the eighties, but what we're escaping has changed.

Anonymous said...

What I see in the photo is quite beautiful! But I've had instances like that, myself. It used to bother me immensely to get to completion and realize I didn't feel the painting was a success, but now I save my failures and learn from them. Love your artwork. I'll be back to visit now that I'm subscribing.

Tracey said...

It is hard to get motivated to get in the studio with all that is going on in the world right now I need to disconnect my tv & internet too ;)

I love love love the colors on your experiment, so juicy & rich! Maybe you can just get out the old saw & cut down until the composition works ;)