Entering into the Known, Unknown.

Working on a new body of oil paintings – embracing my lineage as a realist painter, throwing myself once again into a rich, deep tradition which hit great heights. Long live the Barbizon and Hudson Valley painters school of thought – enriching my life as a monkey and sentient being! Values of mixed orange and tertiary greens – ethers, ground, vapor, warm greys and cool hues- have shown me the light.

 

There is a feeling I get when in front of an Impressionist painting – a feeling of honesty and love. I know they were striving for ‘realism’ and Degas or one of them, possibly Gauguin wanted to call it a realist movement – but the subjugation of light and life filtered in tot the work done daily, and the build up of underpainting stopped. It became a direct approach to paint, in which I am totally engaged in. I now build up an under drawing, with little care to line quality, or tonality – just to fit the work on the page, to see if it is with my weeks time. Yesterday I found myself in front of a horse and buggy, a decent picture, with some perspective, people, trees,a  horse or two actually, and  rider. I challenged myself to put this down in under an hour, on a 18/24 canvas – but found after an hour or so – it was not worth doing. It is a trite picture, and I am overly concerned with drawing it ‘right’, which is taking me out of the spirit of painting.

In turn I will embark on a less traditional, more bucolic scene. I am excited to put it down the way Inness did, the way Church saw the world – with less of a church bend.