dilemma...

A few months ago, like I mentioned in my last post, I started working with water soluble oil colours. I've now completed one painting with these new paints, almost finished with a second - and struggling with a third.

Apart from the smell these oil colours have the same properties of regular oil paints - easy to make smooth transitions between shades, a nice fluency, and it takes longer to dry; you can leave it for hours and continue to manipulate the colours without adding new paint.

However, the last few weeks I've wondered if the last point on the list is actually a good thing. The problem seems to be that the paint not only takes long to dry, it seems to not dry AT ALL. The painting I've finished was up on the wall to dry for weeks and when I took it down to wrap it in plastic and put it away, it was still not dry in places. The plastic glued itself to the painted surface like a magnet. It should be said that this particular painting is made up of half regular canvas surface and half textured (sand texture gel, plus modeling paste, both fine and coarse...) surface, and to get the oil paint to cover this grained surface completely I had to add unbelievable amounts of liquid paint medium. I suppose that could be the source of the problem.

On the other hand, should I refrain from using the liquid medium the paint still seems all but impossible to work with - dry, sticky and greasy at the same time, thick and unruly. So while in theory it's a good thing to experiment with new paints I feel slightly depressed and demotivated. One thing is to experiment - which I have always defined as a completely free, unafraid and enthusiastic approach to the work and not so much result oriented - but right now I feel like I'm just trying to do the same thing with oils as I did with acrylic and it's not working. I feel like I'm not doing anything productive or worthwhile at the moment, and at the same time the semester just started and I'm about to dive head first into a seething pool of heavy art theory.

Ultimately, I think I'm getting to a crisis of combining theory and practice - art theory/history teaches that there's a certain way to think about and practice art today (paradoxically they always seem to say that contemporary art history have several approaches and viewpoints, while on the other hand certain perspectives always seem dominant. Like the fact that aesthetic qualities are less important than relational and societal qualities, or in general a downplaying of the "aesthetic experience" which I find it hard to come to terms with), and when I see that I don't match that system in my so-called artistic practice, I get depressed.

So there you have it. I'm thinking of going back to acrylic paints for a while just to get some creativity and joy for the work back, at the same time I have some text ideas that might come into fruition.
Any advice will be appreciated.

New year's resolutions...

I think I promise myself twice every year that I will be a more active blogger. Not that it helps - I'm either too busy with studies or feel like whatever is going on in my life (related to art or not) is not interesting enough. However this year I WILL make an effort to update this blog more often.

I'll start with a recap of what's been going on since last time I wrote (which I see is April. Oh dear..)

-I never finished the Caravaggio-copying-test project, however it was fun while it lasted.

-I took a class covering art from the baroque to the present and got a B, in addition to getting a B in psychology

-I was part of a 3 day exhibition at CC Vest shopping center (photo below), it was a disaster in one way and a personal victory in another.


-I've temporarily switched the acrylic paints for a new type of water soluble oil paint that doesn't smell like regular oil paint but has all the other positive qualities. I'm currently working on (or have soon finished) two paintings with this new paint, for process photos see this facebook album.

-I've signed up for two art history classes (theories and methods of art history, art from 1950-2000) as well as social/personality psychology, and lectures will start next week

And as always I'm just trying to figure out the balancing act between painting and academic studies.. unfortunately it seems that the theory based studying makes it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the theory behind painting. Like deciding what to do next, defining what I'm actually doing. As mentioned above, lectures haven't started yet but I have already bought all the books and started reading (one of the classes requires the students to read a whole book in addition to several essays before the first lecture, and I realised that one of the theory & method books seems instrumental in understanding the essays in the other class.

And I'm rambling again, which is what I usually do, so everything's back to normal. I'll keep you posted.

Promise.

Another project update

Working on the face now.
...Caravaggio really knew what he was doing. Me - not so much I'm afraid. I thought the face would be the worst thing to do and it IS difficult but the instruments and the music book will be the real challenge I think. Especially the violin, with it's hopeless perspective.

Progress

This is how the lute player looks today, although very yellow because once again I didn't use the flash when I took the photo (I tried using flash and the colours looked authentic but too much light reflected in the varnish...), but I tried adjusting the colours in photoshop and it's the best I could do.

A little experiment

Since Easter is coming up and I don't have any lectures for two weeks, I have more time to spend on painting and art in general. A few days ago suddenly remembered how two different teachers at the two art schools I went to both reminded me of the education value of copying the old masters (or a painting I specifically liked) - Not for display but for the challenge of it and for practicing basic technique. At the time I was given this advice I was hesitant and more enthusiastic about finding my own style and doing my own work. I don't know why I suddenly came to think of it now - possibly because of the recent lectures on Italian renaissance art that really remind me why I love art history so much - but I decided that since I have the time for such a project now, I will take the opportunity to complete the experiment.


I've chosen Caravaggio's Lute player, which seemed suitable because a) I LOVE Caravaggio, and b) It's not a religious motive that I'd feel uncomfortable "tampering" with. This is what it looks like after today:



(I took the photo with the flash off so the colours look a little strange, even after Photoshopping.) Since I paint with acrylics and not oil, although with a few paint mediums added, I can't make it look like an oil painting - It looks more like a coloured pencil drawing at this stage. We'll see how it turns out - I will of course keep you posted about the progress.

Now for the boring info - another facebook album. I hadn't planned on creating a new one but I clicked a little too fast in the iPhoto export tool and it created a new album without my knowing it. Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=381914&id=838195173&l=41f3eb5f68

I'm going to add a few new paintings to the web site later and also update the links page which has been stating "coming soon" since forever. Procrastinating seems to be my real talent..

My (new) life as an art history student

It just occurred to me that life as an art HISTORY student is very different from life as an ART student. It involves, of course, a little less freedom, but that's not all negative.. I think the main difference is the reading that's involved.

True, I used to read a lot in between painting the past few years, but this time it's less fiction and I have to make sense of everything I read even when it's in another language and written 60 years ago. The fun part is that I got so many books I had to move them into another bookcase (although "another" may not be the correct word seeing as I didn't have a bookcase in the first place, just a cupboard where I stacked them on top of each other).



So this is what it looks like now - already the lower shelf looks like it could break any minute.

Speaking of books, I suppose I didn't make it easier for myself by choosing literature as a second subject - I now have to read at least one book each week (in addition to numerous chapters of art history) plus a number of short texts and poems. I don't find it difficult to complete the books as such, but when I have to analyze and talk about what I've read in detail it's not always that easy.

That said, it's only been a few weeks so hopefully it will get better soon.

I also updated the web site today - just a side note; the painting I added a week or so ago may be replaced with a better photo documentation later. I noticed that with my cheap camera, documentation works best when I take the photos outside in daylight and it's been snowing lately so that makes it more difficult.

today's recommendation

I subscribe to a lot of art podcasts. A lot of the time the downloads seem to be piling up and I don't find the time to watch them all, but since Christmas is coming up, I have all the presents ready and consequently more free time, I decided to take today to catch up.

It was well worth it.

Among other things I came across a gem via the einfallsreich.tv podcast:

You Fade To Light, rAndom International for Philips Lumiblade from rAndom International on Vimeo.

More info about the project can be found here.

While I'm at it I can also recommend vernissage.tv and KQED Gallery Crawl.

Enjoy!