"somewhere between there and now"

this will just be a brief post to show what i am working on currently. it's obviously a work-in-progress. the process isn't actually different than what i have been doing painting-wise. however, the thought process and the preparation is different.

so what is new? well, actually the details of the drawing are much more meticulously rendered so that i am not winging it in some important areas in which i was previously pretty sloppy. the most obvious area is in the hair. i now carefully map out where the major tresses lie rather than scribble in a "there...that will be fine" vague line or lines. the exact type of pattern on the apparel is more carefully drawn where before i might just have gone with a solid fabric. it just wouldn't have been the same feeling. i don't think.

additionally i have put a lot of thought into the background and researched a bunch of artists to see how they handled background of their figurative paintings. one such artist, who actually is an oil painter, who uses a bright, warm, glowing, rather plain background with some, dripped, whatever details along the edges in a sort of complementary color is daniel sprick. i had the incredible opportunity to meet him and speak briefly with him (along with the group of fellow workshop attendees) while out in santa fe last month. he was filming a documentary about his work with PBS at the evoke gallery where some of his recent works were hanging. i was taken with the the warm, high-value, yellow background with complementary marks along the top and edges from which lines, drips, and a variety of other thin shapes were effected. in talking to him his reasoning for much of what he paints is that he just likes the object(s) or likes the way they, or in the case of the background, it) looks or that he just likes to paint it (that way). if one is looking for a greater, deeper philosophical meaning, quite likely one will be disappointed. in the case of the background however, he did say the inspiration for the glowing yellowish tint was the description of the "light" many report seeing in near death experiences.........whoa. okay so that is somewhat deep.

anywho, if your next question is,"where are you going with the background in this piece?" i would say look to daniel sprick (website).

okay, so maybe not so brief.............

so, here then is the wip, "somewhere between there and now" (13"X21").

"somewhere between there and now" (wip)