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Woman in Gray, Skewed

9/9/2019

4 Comments

 
"Woman in Gray, Skewed" (inspired by Rufino Tamayo's "Woman in Gray") - mixed media on paper, 19" x 13".  Ready to frame.  Available here and at Artfinder.

This is the next piece in my self-created home study of Rufino Tamayo.  The original appealed to me because of the very primitive treatment of the form, the very neutral, earthy palette and simple shapes.  I love the way the form dominates the entire composition, and preserved that in my skewed version.

Again, as with "Boy in Blue, Skewed", the best parts are where watercolor and crayon peek through the chalky gesso and paint mixture.  Once more, the temptation to refine, make realistic, soften was nearly impossible to resist.  Nearly.  

"What's useful here is not the mental press for some kind of perfection, but the heartfelt effort to see and hear what's calling from beneath the surface facts of the world." - MARK NEPO

A reminder from my unusual art muse (NEPO) that the mental press of perfection isn't the goal at all.
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Woman in Gray, Skewed
This daily looking at Tamayo (and by looking, I also mean sketching and exploring with paint) really reduces, narrows, hones - my eyes begin to see the simplest of shapes in a compositional setting.  For those of you with a formal art education, perhaps this realization seems rudimentary.  For me it is a revelation.

Nepo, in The One Life We're Given, mentions the practice of tracking whale sightings in ship logs from the 1800's.    "And all processes of art are essentially ship logs, in which we track the appearance of what matters, and it surprises us with its majestic breach in to the ordinary moments of our day."  These studies are my ship logs.  A little aha, a majestic breach.  I will keep looking.
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Woman in Gray, Rufino Tamayo 1931 - oil on canvas
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small sketch
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marks and watercolor over small sketch
4 Comments
Dotty Seiter link
9/8/2019 01:05:59 pm

Jen! Woman in Gray is SO all about shape, shadow, suggestion, restraint, hint, and implication.

Very powerful.

Reply
jen
9/8/2019 03:13:53 pm

Dotty! You said "restraint"!!!!! I feel like a champion now. Thanks, lady!

Reply
Carol Edan link
9/8/2019 01:06:49 pm

Love this piece! Again thanks for the your "log"! Love how she stands against the background, and the distortion in her head. Is she looking at me or somehow screaming to the side? Hey maybe Stan will so an online course for those of us on the other side of the world?

Reply
jen
9/8/2019 03:14:54 pm

Carol, thank you so much! I'm pretty sure she is both looking at you AND screaming to the side! ha ha! And Stan, if you're reading this, please consider an online course!!! OMG! I would sign up right away!

Reply



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Here's the blue wild, where
tiny dreamers ride beasts, speak
​ birdsong, hold the moon.

(by poet Mary W. Cox)
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​Art prints available on request
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