and at the Studio...

La chute Montmorency, oil,  (click for larger image)

This past week, writing about Faulkner with Peter in the evenings, I was also working during the afternoon on my painting. Today, after some fine-tuning, I decided it was done enough for now, and the most productive thing is to go on to something different.

I've been amazed how helpful it is to take photos not only of the evolution of the ideas, but of the stages of the painting itself. This is all new for me, since when I was painting before I didn't have a digital camera! I'm glad to have a record of what was there before it got obliterated or changed. So here's a slideshow of the whole process:

This exploration and eventual painting have taught me a great deal, and although I'm not satisfied with the result, of course, and it's far from where I hope to go, I'm well aware that it represents a big leap. I can see some of my confusion and hanging-on to old ways in the painting itself, but that's good, because it illuminates the direction I need to go. It's hard to let go of some of the comforting conventions of realism -- atmospheric perspective, for instance, or realistic shapes as opposed to stylized or abstracted ones, or flat planes of color rather than modeling -- and jump off into a scene of my own creation, trusting my sense of color, form, composition. When I stopped painting, before, I had gone much further in that direction in my watercolors than in oils, where for some reason the medium seemed to demand a closer connection with what I saw in front of me, with what was real.

Last night I was studying Peter Khoroche's excellent book on the work of Ivon Hitchins, recommended to me by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, and saw a quote from Hitchins, one of the foremost British landscape painters of the twentieth century, that said something like, "I usually know what I want to do in a particular painting, but have no idea when I start of how to do it." I'm not sure he was being completely honest there, but it was a heartening thing to read those words from a master.

Comments

[Dave]

Wow! I like the finished result a lot, but am also quite fond of some of the studies along the way. That made for a very satisfying slideshow (I hope popel will expand it to full screen). I admire your stick-to-it-iveness (not to be confused with OCD).

[Marja-Leena]

The slide show is fascinating. Many of the stages do work well on their own so it's interesting to see how you push on and develop it further. After reading Dave's reminder to expand to full screen, your final image popped up large and I immediately thought Gauguin, or later Cezanne! Way to go, Beth!

[Kim]

I really love the end result, which (as you know) is a bit surprising. I'm much more of a realist. Love the slide show, too. Fascinating to watch the work progress.

[Peter]

It's quite fascinating to watch this. Because I'm not an artist, I never get how drafting has so much to do with a strong final product because the detail in the draft is covered over with paint or whatever. I love Van Gogh, and the comments people would make about his landscapes to the effect that he couldn't draw bothered me. Then I read that he was considered perhaps the best draftsman of his day. If I were that good of a draftsman, I'd stick with drafting to show everyone how good I was. It seems like a leap of faith to go so far beyond it, but I guess that's artistic vision.

Can I say we're still tracking even though this isn't one of the two Faulkner books we've both been reading and even though I don't paint, if I've spent a lot of the past three weeks working on how my students and I can document and reflect on our written drafts? I'm starting electronic portfolios this year, and I hope to use videos to help the kids reflect on -- and by that take more ownership in -- their writing process.

[Uma Gowrishankar]

This is beautiful Beth, the slide show - your journey through sketching on location to water colours and the oils. And the big leap from realism, the way you push boundaries. I am a realist and I like the way the rocks catch the sun on them in your final painting.

[Jamas]

Hi Beth, the evolution of this work is really beautiful. The steps in the process stand on their own but the ensemble is really satisfying to see. Brava!

[Clive Hicks-Jenkins]

Well done for sticking to the project Beth. It's been an illuminating journey with your stage-by-stage drawings and water-colour studies leading to the final painting. The great pleasure of developmental work is that although it just seems a process at the time, afterwards, if it's been executed with commitment, each stage can stand alone as a completed artwork. I always show my preparatory sketches and studies when I do big shows. The drawings are often equally as interesting as the finished works. Different of course, but nevertheless valid. And different approaches in the early stages can often lead to different conclusions in completed works. You might do not one completed version, but three or more, all of them entirely satisfactory but quite different. This working in series is an excellent means by which to explore ideas thoroughly.

[Natalie]

Beth, the sequence of drawings is fascinating and in my view, more satisfying than the painting. Partly because you seem more free to explore line and form when not preoccupied with colour. But I agree that you might do several other paintings on the same theme and each one would be valid in itself.
The section of the painting which really works well for me is the bottom left half, about three-quarters of the way down the canvas. I hope you don't mind my saying so?

Along with Ivon Hitchens, a painter you may resonate with is Nicolas De Stael (who is not entirely unlike Hitchens). Are you familiar with him? He was a fascinating artist and individual.

[Beth]

Natalie, I don't mind at all, in fact I'm very grateful for your specific feedback. And i agree -- I'm not satisfied with the painting at all, but some of the drawings I like a great deal - #s 7 and 8 in the sequence particularly -- and for me, the value of this has is the process more than some "final" result. If I'm to go in this direction, I expect years of work and struggle. Oil painting, as you know so well, is a difficult thing, and to find one's personal style and voice as well as mastering form, line, and color in a non-traditional approach is only going to happen through long exploration, trial-and-error, study, thinking, and non-thinking.

[Jan]

Love watching the progression. Especially love the shapes and contrasts in the last one. Thanks so much for sharing, Beth.

[Hattie]

What a fascinating trip into an artist's creative process. As others have commented, I like the work done along the way, but the final result seems to be the most sophisticated.
Original inspiration followed by working over, revision, etc. seems like a good way to work.

[maria]

It's been great to watch the evolution of the painting, from sketch to the final cascade of water that seems to be rushing off the canvas straight at us with such power and grace.

[Lucy]

I couldn't say at this point which of the studies I like the best, I simply enjoyed seeing the slideshow so much as a kind of variations on a theme I suppose. I love the final result of course, more, actually than I thought I was going to, but it's hard to see it separate from the other stages. Natalie's comment was interesting, made me look at it again - I think the bottom left quarter is perhaps the best! But really it's all marvellous...

[James]

I enjoyed watching how this piece evolved. That slide show was very cool. I like the finished product a lot, as well as some of the other versions too. What a rich experience it must be to document your discovery process like this.