But back to the quote at the beginning of this post - I absolutely live in the gap. What I imagine and what I paint are two different things. But I am relentlessly determined to have my skills catch up to my dreamscapes. Probably they never will. But there is always the next one. Which is a lot like hiking. What's over the next hill? Around the bend? Across the stream? Always curious about what's coming next. Always willing to go and look. About the art: beginning with a piece of art board (donated by my artist husband while he organized his studio space) I roughed in a mottled sky using a palette knife and thinned oil paint. Using the side of the palette knife and some dark paint, I roughed in a landscape in a V shape with a couple of hills. Working quickly and abandoning preciousness, I build layers of paint until there was some texture to it. Grabbing a piece of butcher paper, I pressed it into the paint to lift some of the layers, then pressed the paint-laden paper in other sections, creating a rocky ground look. Carving back into the paint with a rubber wedge and creating some "treeness", then adding color to those verticals with the palette knife. Inspired by hikes in the waterfall section of the Columbia River Gorge. The June Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - FREE! And thanks for your comments and your support!
6 Comments
Dotty Seiter
6/8/2025 04:37:56 pm
Lola, this one is compelling me to look again and again and again, and all around the art board and then around again. The abstraction fascinates—it is RIGHT AT THE EDGE of offering hints of something recognizable (some SOMEthingness) and being "no more than" paint applied appealingly and compellingly to a substrate. I see feathers … no, wait, just kidding. Maybe flames? naaa. Maybe tree trunks? Canadian wildfire smoke making for hazy skies? A Native American woven blanket?
lola
6/9/2025 02:58:39 pm
Dotty!!!! Thank you thank you THANK YOU! "Somethingness" is the goal! Huzzah! Thank you for making me feel so dang successful in my art endeavors! xoxoxo
Carl S
6/9/2025 09:52:40 am
Yes! Abstractscapes. I love that word! Living in the gap. That is so true. My paintings are clumsy attempts to express my vision, but I think that is what keeps me motivated. I get closer to the vision with each painting, but it will take a lifetime. You turned me on to Brian Rutenberg years ago. His studio talks keep me company while I paint. I play them over and over to mine the gems I miss in the concentration of painting. After all these years of watercolor I feel like I’m getting enough control of the medium. I hope the next half of my career is painting with the voice that I’m just starting to find its elusive. The desire to make a successful painting sometimes inhibits the exploration I need to do. Part of that is from teaching. I want to give students a path to a successful painting. On my own in the studio I need to loosen my grip a bit. Maybe I need a studio alter-ego😀
lola
6/9/2025 03:00:26 pm
Carl!!! You watercolors are masterful..you make it seem SO easy, even though it is the result of a hundred million days of practice (or thereabouts. ha ha!). 6/11/2025 02:33:14 am
Oh how I love Brian Rutenberg, and often re-look at his studio visits. He was a guest speaker at CW academy, and was marvelous.
lola
6/11/2025 02:56:13 pm
Carol!!!! How deliciously wonderful that BR spoke at CW academy! WOWEE!!! Leave a Reply. |
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