Chuck Larivey OPA, Oil Painter: Now what!

Monday: The parties are over - the tax man is banging on the door and the deck needs painting. Perhaps a good thing, after all, it is spring and cleaning, painting and gardening seems right for the season. It's also a good time to be lazy and ignore it all, including the barbarian at the gate! Spring also brings peonies and water lilies which I enjoy painting.

NEW LILY PADS

I like water lilies in the spring because the pads are red, at least for awhile. Last year produced a lot of photos but not many top views like this. Typically I shoot them at different times of the day until the pond is totally consumed with lilies. Like I said before, a very aggressive variety.....actually need a bigger pond.

PEONIES

This batch of garden peonies was from 2013. The Stravitz Gallery has the two top ones and the bottom is in my own collection. Last year I didn't do any. I was more interested in change than flowers. The peony is a flower I understand tho and can paint. The lily however is a work in progress. I'll study them more next time around.

Tuesday: You know how some things gets mentioned more than once and you pay attention to the last one. That happened to me last week. Sometimes even an obvious title is missed. In this case it was and a sales associates reason for returning it.

AIR

This was the first painting and the bench mark for the "Air project"

I didn't mind the returning, just the reason! "The painting doesn't have anything going on and it's hard to make out if those are trees or not". The first time it was on another painting I ignored it, the second time it got my attention because it was almost the same reason. It made me realize neither understand the visual message in the painting or are able to counter positively if the remark was made by a client or customer........it also meant they would not be able to sell my work. It goes without saying it was on my mind and still is. I guess this is why art is moved around a bit before it finds the right wall.

A good sales staff knows what any artist they represent is trying to convey, be quick on their feet, positively respond to inquires about any painting....regardless of their own personal taste.

The QUICKSAND here, sales, is an art form, because it's difficult to sell anything you don't believe in or love. In truth, it would be a difficult sale for most....people sense it and walk. I'm no different. I may not want to be bothered, but when I'm ready, the sales person is key to a sale.

I'm sure it will all work itself out - oddly this got me thinking about "AIR" again, an unfinished project I never really concluded. In fact it ended up with me taking 2-months off.

Last year my painting focus was about "AIR", exploring more abstraction, possibilities and mood. "AIR" is an interesting subject because it has range. I paint Venice, London, rivers and the sea, sometimes with horses, the obvious, but that's not what those paintings were about or why I painted them. They only give a reference point to the real intent, "AIR". The other component to air is light and when added to a reflective surface, creates visual magic at its best! I would not bother painting if it were otherwise.

Even the peony paintings above are driven by the feel of "AIR". Because of those comments it never occurred to me others would not see it too, or at least separate it out. In truth, most do..... they may not realize it, but they do. I know because they talk more about that than the obvious subject. The obvious perhaps reminds them of a time in their lives that made them happy. But, the heart-thump, the speed-bump or the jump-factor, whatever you want to call it, is the "LIGHT and AIR" quality of a painting....in my mind the obvious!

The concept "SINGULAR FOCUS" was developed from my "AIR" paintings. It was really a simplification to one obvious subject. Most of the air paintings were based off the sunrise on a rivers edge, then gravitated to the reflection on the waters surface and below. It also had an additional component, "SIZE & ABSTRACTION", which complicated it........lost energy ended it!