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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

New Work: Fogline + John Denver!



A fineness of relationships...

I read something similar sounding to the above idea in one of my composition books. Isn't it the truth though? One of the things that I am trying to focus on learning is the concept of proportion. That is a wide swath of ground to cover, let me tell you! Overall, it can apply  to almost anything in painting: color, line, shape size and variation, and on and on, right down to whether or not the color green is more blue or more yellow. And I am beginning to see that a person could have some built in biases or preferences. I tend to make shapes all of the same size if I don't catch myself first. My greens tend to be warmer rather than cooler and initially, I tend to divide the compositional space into three equal parts. I know too, from doing the above piece, that I can complicate the initial idea in an attempt to "fix" things. Adding more shapes to the composition doesn't always help. Less is really more many times.  I have to continually remind myself to check for things and honestly, that is fine. As I wrote above, it's a fineness of relationships.

The above piece was completed today and is based on a few things that I routinely observe when driving to and from the Bay Area. Highway 26 west takes me to the town of Linden and then on to Stockton. There are a lot of flat fields with distant rolling hills. While looking at the far treeline which hugs the edge of the hills, it appears as if that area is frequently enveloped in a bluish/grayish/purplish mist. During the late fall and on into winter, there is often a low fog line above everything. As the road rises and dips with the slope of the land, it's possible to see both below and above this line. Frequently, the moon is still visible in the early morning as I make my way towards the west. As I was driving the other day, I thought of the fog and how a good idea would be to paint that kind of "strata" of fogline, bluish distant mist, and then the warm sky above sort of waiting to breakthrough everything.  I added the hill/mountain line and included the fields which soon, when the springtime comes, will be green. I am both a literal and "figurative" painter I suppose. What best can I paint to represent some broad concepts?

OK, it's Wednesday-halfway done. Yesterday's painting session was a bit of a snafu but today's went much better. Hope everyone is having a good week. 
Libby

Leaving you with this clip from John Denver. Gone nearly 18 years now. Thank God I'm a Country Boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOjQwyVbJl4

2 comments:

  1. A very clever way to depict the "fog line" and whats beneath and above it. I've seen this in real life so many times on the Monterey Peninsula.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it! I reply back in an email if you are signed in and I can see your address. Otherwise I will post the reply here under your comment. I tend to cut and paste my emails too so that others can experience the back and forth which I think is integral to blogging.
Libby