Canvases 927 and 928 with known intent!

I had these 36x30 canvases collecting dust and honestly knew they would never get used but as studies perhaps; and a good size because they are small enough to complete an idea in one session. With any luck one of these can be a spring board to something of scale.

When I don't have any one thing to paint but in the mood, I found it easier to do something known well as a warmup. I'm a lot more open when this happens too.

CANVAS 927

927 Reflection and Separation 36x30 oil on linen (10-4-14)

 Detail

CANVAS 928

928 AIR 36x30 oil on linen (10-5-14)

Detail

My dusty 36x30 canvases are the first using a clear verbal intent, mood and intimacy as the main reference! Every time I step up to my easel now all I have to do is paint. Which means for me painting is no longer about raising a technical bar on paint quality, colour or process but painting preference like mood and intimacy. One might say.....school is out! Get to it! Or my preference, Ground Zero..

Once I embraced the idea of a verbal description as my goal, technical uncertainty was removed from the equation. All I would have to do is accomplish my verbal intent as shown above, where I used the green Koi approach on the first - a bit more obvious then moved across the table to less definition and more possibilities..... When that happens, mood and intimacy become more intent.

Diminished light steps up further intensifying my intent.

 Diminished light

Diminished light

Light is always important to a painting, but can, as shown above, intensify mood and intimacy as it's reduced. So lighting gives a painting more range than at the easel and becomes an important part of the equation. It's a very dramatic thing and Rathko understood it well. The obvious to anyone who studies a days work for hours as light recedes.....as he did and so many others do.

How our work is presented is as important as the painting itself - humans respond accordingly to their environment....which includes their art.

I suppose if the viewer wants, by getting up close and personal, intimacy can be entered even at 36x30. Although harder at this size but imagine it at a heroic scale......