Woman in Gray, Skewed

"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.

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.

Woman in Gray, Rufino Tamayo 1931 - oil on canvas

small sketch

marks and watercolor over small sketch