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I Can Barely Contain Myself

3/16/2020

12 Comments

 
"I Can Barely Contain Myself" - mixed media on wood panel, 16" x 24".  Available here and at Artfinder.

"Why do so many painters look as if they're getting a flu shot when talking  about their work? I can barely contain myself.  My worst day is still better than a good day in most other jobs." - BRIAN RUTENBERG. ​A Little Long Time

​Oh.
My.
​Goodness.
Picture
I Can Barely Contain Myself
There was a wild rumpus of color in the studio.  Time spent with Rutenberg's new book has color-bombed my brain.  But it has also instilled some new painting principles, which we at Malarkey Central fondly call "Triangle (or V), Border Snake, Saddle and Rug."  It is so easy to see them....not just in Rutenberg's work, but also in both classic and contemporary paintings at the Portland Art Museum recently.  But not so instinctive to apply them in a composition.  Unless you do it again
and again
and again
until something CLICKS and it's like oh, wow...now I get it and then you can't stop doing it.  It is only a matter of time before meals are arranged on my plate in this compositional format with the eggplant, beets and kale in the saddle and saffron rice in the triangle.  Maybe a kiwi sky?  Or perhaps it is just time for lunch...

About the painting: 800 million layers of acrylic, gesso, paint pens, charcoal, art graf and crayon on wood panel.  Well, it seems like that many layers.  Beginning with a library of elements (ala Stan Kurth) and then bombs of color.  The paint is thickly applied with the rubber wedge, spritzed, squeegeed, chopsticked (is that a verb?) and then applied again and lightly pulled in one direction or another.  Are these instructions confusing?  Perhaps because this piece was entirely intuitive, with exception of the Rutenbergian painting principles.  But let's do it again anyway!  WHAT FUN!
12 Comments
Carl Stoveland
3/16/2020 12:34:06 pm

Oh my GOD!! Those colors! That depth! Stunning.

Reply
jen
3/16/2020 12:36:26 pm

Carl! Thank you!!!! It was worth all the layers and color-wrestling. Very happy to have painted BOLD this weekend!!!

Reply
Carl
3/17/2020 09:43:18 pm

By the way... compare this color palette to digipainting I did for you with the brush :-)

jen
3/17/2020 09:52:17 pm

Holy cow, Carl! Your digipainting palette is the bomb....let's use this palette more often!

Reply
Dotty link
3/16/2020 01:04:14 pm

The detail photo from I Can Barely Contain Myself that you posted on the Art page of your website yanked me right out the door of my shelter-in-place isolation for a miles-long walk through the depth of what you painted, all the way to a brick-layer, with whom I had a nourishing conversation from six feet away, each of us with sun shining on us and air moving across our arms and faces. Hot damn!

Reply
jen
3/16/2020 01:14:55 pm

Dotty! Ha ha! Thank you for mentally leaving your isolation space and exploring this painting....wooohooo! Happy to provide a little bold sun and warmth on this Monday. :)

Reply
brian smith
3/16/2020 01:40:00 pm

Dotty!!!!
Holy moly, what a reply!
It took me some time just to bask in the words you wrote, so good!
~b

Reply
Dotty Seiter link
3/19/2020 01:20:13 pm

Thanks, Brian! Twas a fun walk through that painting and fun to find words to describe where it took me.

Dotty

brian smith
3/16/2020 01:41:59 pm

Jen, what an amazing piece.
I love what you do .... with paint and all the things :)
~b

Reply
jen
3/16/2020 05:16:43 pm

Brian! Thank you, sweet man. And for encouraging me through all the 800 million layers!

Reply
Carol Edan link
3/18/2020 03:11:35 am

Repetitions, diagonals, bright colors, and intuition great recipe!

Reply
jen
3/19/2020 01:18:00 pm

Carol! Thank you! Delighting in diagonals lately.....

Reply



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