Work in progress
A: I am in the early stages – only 3 or 4 layers of pastel applied so far – on a large pastel painting with the working title, “He and She.” The figures are two favorites – a four-foot tall male and female couple, made of carved wood and silver and gold-leaf. I found them years ago at Galerie Eugenio in Mexico City.
These are the largest heads I have ever painted. As I work on this piece I remember one of my teachers saying, “Never paint a head larger than life-size.” Well, here’s to breaking rules.
For reference I am looking at a digital photograph shot with my Canon T3i. My usual practice is to make a c-print from a negative made with my Mamiya 6, but the photo clipped to my easel above is from a high resolution JPEG. Typically I set up a scene at home on a black cloth and photograph it, but my reference photo was taken in my studio without rearranging anything. In this painting I am breaking a few rules, while my creative process is perhaps evolving towards greater simplicity.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art Works in Progress, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Mexico, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Photography, Studio, Working methods Tagged: "Broken", "He and She", another, applied, breaking, c-print, Canon T3i, carved, clipped, couple, creative, digital, easel, evolving, favorites, female, Galerie Eugenio, gold-leaf, greater, heads, high, home, jpeg, layers, looking, made, main, male, Mamiya 6, Mexico City, more, negative, painting, pastel, perhaps, photograph, piece, practice, process, progress, rearranging, reference, remember, resolution, rule, rules, saying, scene, set up, shapes, silver, simplicity, stages, Studio, taken, tall, teachers, today, usual, vividly, wood, work
