Painting From Life vs. From Photos
This is a painting resulting from searching. Outlines of different figures are visible behind the man and woman whom I ‘found’ in the process. The sketching use of paint is not the way I usually work. That’s part of what makes this picture interesting to me. It bridges drawing and painting which, for me, are usually sequential and distinct processes.
I made this back in April. Now I am returning to this limited palette and exploratory form of painting.
The Dutch have an expression, “fine painter.” I loath this expression, because it tends to force an artist into a position where “fine” (as in detailed, not loaded with spontaneous dabs of paint) becomes the goal of painting. “Fine” or “coarse” are of no interest to me as goals, only as means.
Do you sometimes switch between very different modes of expression, whether in painting, drawing, or photography? Do you think in doing so you are trying to find difference approaches to the same expressive goal? My feeling is that I am doing that, that there is an unity. This is part of what makes its so exciting.
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Gorgeous. I love the fluidity of the lines, colors, luminance and mystery of other shapes in the background.
I find this lovely and fascinating. It’s both very different from your previous work and easily recognizable. I especially like the palette of colors and their freedom from the line. This really is a bridge for you.
I also find it fascinating that you’d forgotten Angela’s painting that June showed yesterday, although you commented on Angela’s February post on Drawings and Studies. Especially if you ignore the reddish background on the left edge, your painting has a very similar color scheme. Both have a mysterious air (though of different flavors) which the sketchiness contributes to. Do you think it might have been a subliminal influence?
In photography, my current project on horses is quite different in approach. I don’t think I’m clear enough on the expressive goal of any of it (despite writing various statements) to say whether that’s the same. But ultimately I trust that there is a unity just because it’s one me doing it. Perhaps some curator will figure it out for me. :-)
I love the details of sand and water that my camera captures. But I prefer the aberrations in perspective that I can introduce by sketching the same landscape.
This place will be good for ‘fine’ painting because it is easily accessible and quiet in the early morning before the sun begins to scorch the beach.
Steve,
I love your horse pictures. I am emailing the link to my daughter who, as a child, always went to ‘horse summer camp’.
Steve,
I advanced-published this post the other days. I saw Angela’s painting on June’s post thereafter. Angela’s painting penetrated deeply into my soul. If I were not so fond on Angela, I would be intensely jealous. Angela is our big talent here on A&P. Make no mistake, much of her work is, in whole or in part, not up to same level, but that scarily matters to me. One day the collectors, in their infinite myopia and slowness, will discover her. She deserves it. I hope she will still remember us then. She is a pure human being, beautiful in her lack of artifice. I am honored to have her join us here from time to time.
Karl, your lines are gorgeous.
Karl,
Marvelous.
Can you give a bit more detail about how you worked this canvas? Did you begin with a charcoal stick and then move to brush, or did you brush in the contour lines from the beginning? Does your paint vary in thickness, so sometimes we see the underlying lines more or less clearly and sometimes not?
This haunts me — it’s the opposite of pornography (where what you see is all there is); here what you see has more and more to it and I want to keep looking and looking. I like your earlier work, but this — well, this makes me tingle — the eyes echoing the nipples which draw one to the underlying breasts — the sense of multiple lives that underlie even these young lives. The curve of the lips, the flare of the nostril…. And that brings me back to those eyes, which come out of the lives that had been lived and were still part of the present. Well, you see, I have made up stories on top of stories and it’s only 10:30 AM. The composition is sheer joy.
Karl:
I love your approach in the image that you have presented. The female figure on the right is especially well done. If I may tender a comment, however, her raised arm seems a little out of keeping with the overall tone – in two ways. One, it comes across differently handled from the rest of her and its straight lines clash somewhat in my mind with the supple lines encountered elsewhere.
Having set that tone, I must admit to being too allovertheplace. My biggest challenge is not to find variety, but focus.
Oddly enough, Jay, I liked that arm as an angular almost-punch to her companion. Maybe it’s just my misandry showing itself.
June:
There seems to be a lot of that going around.
Or, I might suggest an unwashed underarm and the reaction thereto.
Karl,
I liked this very much. I see some figures in the background and it adds to the tension – psychological, sexual and physical. The aquiline features on the figures are a classic ‘Karl Zipser’, but the style is not. Did you use charcoal or was it gouache with under-painting?
Last night,this left me speechless. Looking at it again it is incredible. I must say that I prefer mono tone type art, probably because I started with charcoal. I love sepia photographs too :) I agree with June in that it would be interesting to know how you worked the canvas?
I think what you are talking about here is very interesting. I similarly use a combination of painting and drawing in my work, and I believe that here you have done it to great effect. I have recently been given the opportunity to free myself from the definitions in art that you have described, for example ‘fine’and ‘coarse’, and am now embracing a combination of drawing and painting. I love the immediacy of drawing- and yet the fluidity of paint can really complement this method. I agree with you that it is an exciting field, and continue my search for more contemporary artists who do the same.