Painting "Pink Angels"

Above, see a video of me working on the piece “Pink Angels.” There is a really, really horrible in-progress shot posted a few weeks back (my apologies to all you blog readers as well as all my photography teachers over the years). Anyhow, I think it is about in the can. May do a bit to it, but I am pretty pleased.

Why non-representational? (let’s not get into how useless I think that term really is, as well as “abstract,” but they are what we’ve got… but, does the painting not really “represent” something??? and how is abstract? isn’t taking 3-d and making it 2-d an abstraction? oh, wait, I am in the middle of a tangent…

Ok, but why non-representational? I am not sure. I am really not sure what pulls that trigger. But, I like the painting, so here we are.

By the way, the music is Yellowcard. I was on a Youtube playlist frenzy while painting this thing. Yes, when my mouth is moving in the video, I am singing, not just madly talking to myself (as with the tangent above)… send a thank you note to me when you get a chance that I laid the Yellowcard over my sounds. Singing? Not my strong suit.

As for the painting. I have been in the middle of two books lately: “Elaine and Bill: Portrait of a Marriage,” by Lee Hall and “The Judgment of Paris” by Ross King. Think I already said that if you were going for one de Kooning book do “An American Master,” but the Lee Hall is interesting. Also, the “Judgment,” is a great book… good in-depth look at Manet, which I hadn’t had as much of in the past (my Impressionist studies were centered much more about Monet).

And yes, I would say the painting is influenced by these sources. Also, by one of de Kooning’s comrades-in-arms, and possible mentor, Arshile Gorky. When I was 23-ish I had a drawing course with Sam Walker at UMASS Boston I was introduced to Gorky’s “The Liver is the Cock’s Comb,” and did a subsequent series of imitations of Gorky’s style of biomorphic abstraction (another horrible term). This, and de Kooning, were certainly whispering in my ear as I painted. For that matter the Sam Walker/Gorky tag-team likely influence my working methods in general regardless of what I paint. So, there is that de Kooning connection.

Here is something else: Was reading about 19th Century painters using a heavy black background to make things “pop” off the canvas. I have never tried this. Weird. In my at least 20 years or art and painting formally I have never done this. My oil painting training included using a yellow or bright background to give the appearance of luminescence. But, I wanted to experiment with this dark background… so I used a heavy blue to start. I like the results.

The other interesting intersection here is the idea of the line, and the idea of Manet and de Kooning. Lots has been said for Manet nearly outlining figures with his heavy black lines. And de Kooning was drawing first, often with charcoal and then re-working and re-working. Here, I got near the end of working the forms and really wanted to experiment with use of heavy black. I always hear a Rosenquist quote when I touch black (something like “you never use pure black paint, you always mix it,”) and I mixed this black with silvers and bronzes. I laid it down very, very heavy at times, and like how that plays against the harmony of the thinner lines and the other colors.

I also liked the flatness of some of the colors (pink for one) against the worked-in tones of some of the others. Set up a nice set of distance shifts.

One of the problems in these paintings for me is in the naming. It is always easier to name my “pop-ish” pieces, as the titles often indicate dual meanings or deeper digging to be done. Here, I felt there was some sort of wide-screen epic going on in the undulating faces, forms. I think if Rothko using colors as characters in a drama. There is definitely a drama here, a set of introductions, some conflicts, tension. But all that said, I saw the pink, and the blue seeping through and I thought I might as well steal from de Kooning again: Pink Angels is the name of one of his amazingly brilliant works.

One of my gauges for a painting, and when it may be done, is in my enjoyment in looking. I like looking at this.

I hope you do too.

And yes, I use Styrofoam plates sometimes for palettes. Get off my back.