LolaJovan.com
  • Home
  • ART
  • BLOG
  • Exhibits
    • The Downside of Lycanthropy
    • A Song for the Hunted
    • The Wild God
    • NUDGE - SHOVE
  • BOOKS

It's the Sweetwater that Carries Us On

1/23/2020

10 Comments

 
Picture
practice - acrylic on mat board
​"It's the Sweetwater That Carries Us On" - acrylic on mat board - a practice piece.  

The truth is that we need each other even before we know each other, even before we know we are in need.  Like snow trickling down mountain cracks to form a stream, like streams washing over roots to form a river, like rivers meeting at the mouth of the sea, we run our course: destined to merge along the way.  And it's the sweetwater, Love, that brings us together and that carries us on.
- MARK NEPO, The Exquisite Risk


The rainy season is creating airborne waterfalls in Portland.  Snow is piled high on Mount Hood, trickling down at the base, filling the rivers and turning everything a vibrant shade of alien green.  Hello, happy mosses!  Hello, people bundled in rain gear and dogs sporting jaunty rain jackets!

​This week in the studio, I chose to push Brian Rutenberg's extreme limitation prompt even further, narrowing the tools down to just a rubber wedge brush and using a very rough, unforgiving mat board as substrate.  Continued inspiration came from Ornulf Opdahl and imposing, dark shapes.  The substrate, ultimately, was the opposite of last post's delightful mat board.  This one soaked up water and pigment, did not take paint well and did not allow the wedge to glide.   But I learned a few things about putting dark water against dark mountains, working with murky shadows and shapes.

In the meantime, the thrice-gesso'd large abstract is becoming figurative...so here is a rare work-in-process glimpse of a figure being born.  
Picture
work in process

I'd love to send this practice piece to anyone out there who might use it as inspiration to try their own extreme limitation painting...leave a comment below with the parameters of your proposed extreme limitation prompt, and Wonder Mike will choose a winner at random to receive this piece in the mail.  Ready?  Set? GO!
10 Comments
Carolyn L
1/23/2020 12:43:39 pm

Sooooooo.... this is a practice piece, huh? Well, why does it look so complete and Jen-like? The murkiness all came together in great Jen-fashion! I so admire your work and that you accept challenges in your art and test your limits so fearlessly! xoxo

Reply
jen
1/23/2020 02:02:23 pm

Carolyn! You are TOO kind! But I am delighted the murkiness came through, because that was truly the goal. Can I be the mistress of malarkey AND the maven of murky? I'l like to!!!! Big hugs!!!

Reply
Dotty Seiter link
1/23/2020 02:12:15 pm

wow.

i am suffused with the energy and magic of you and your creations!

thank you.

Reply
jen
1/23/2020 05:17:51 pm

Dotty! Yay. Here is another heap load of energy magic - just in case you need more later. :)

Reply
Carl
1/23/2020 02:19:58 pm

Jen.
Thank you so much for turning me in to Nepo! I randomly pick a passage from one of the books daily and let it swirly around while I draw and paint. I like that you post the paintings with quotes. I may have to steal that.

I have been thinking as I look at your abstracts that realism and abstracts are not as different as I once thought. Working in layers and zooming in and out as I build highlights and shadows the pieces develop like a photo in a darkroom much as the abstracts speak to you and evolve almost willing the brush to release them from just beyond our view.

Carl

Reply
jen
1/23/2020 05:17:14 pm

Carl! Nepo is a treasure....one passage per day is all I can handle!

I like your comparison of the building process of abstracts and realism. Not so different! Except for figuring out the final structure of an abstract, which is, as you said, just beyond our view. :)

Reply
Carol
1/26/2020 12:21:12 pm

Limitations in the end gives more freedom! My favorite limitations are with the use of color. Either 3 basics variations of red, blue, yellow plus white chromatic black or just 2 colors plus white and chromatic black. May add buff titanium.


Reply
jen
1/26/2020 04:57:00 pm

Carol! Yes! Limitations DO free us. I like your idea of color limitations....and I will give that a go in the coming weeks!!!

Reply
brian smith
1/29/2020 12:25:41 pm

Literally hilarious that this is a practice piece, you are exsquisitely humble, the painting coherently conveys both of your inspiration points perfectly. I see Ornulf and I chuckle at Rutenberg's quirky influence. Very well played in all the ways. Thank you.

Reply
jen
1/29/2020 12:37:54 pm

Brian!!! Thank you for your super encouragement - ready for your own extreme limitation painting??? xo

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Lola Jovan

    Picture

    Get Mail!

    * indicates required
    /* real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

    Intuit Mailchimp

    Categories

    All
    An Unexpected Life
    Bones
    Bossy Pants
    Mischief And Malarkey
    Rewilding
    The Art Of Seeing
    The Inner Landscape
    The Weight Of Words

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

(by poet Mary W. Cox)
​


​Art prints available on request
  • Home
  • ART
  • BLOG
  • Exhibits
    • The Downside of Lycanthropy
    • A Song for the Hunted
    • The Wild God
    • NUDGE - SHOVE
  • BOOKS