I was asked if students could spend more time on a painting, rather than producing lots of sketches, which got me thinking about how to plan and execute a painting. Seeing as my own planning and preparation for a painting is generally so limited I thought it would be a good opportunity to develop a piece much more than I would usually.
One of the aspects of painting which I enjoy most is playing with how colour and light affect form, volume and distance. I'm less worried about how accurately the objects are rendered, but rather how they become interesting shapes on the canvas, along similar lines as Wayne Thiebaud cakes or an Emile Bernard composition. At the same time I love to see how far gestural elements can intrude to distort the figures before the painting become too abstract and I loose the thread of where I'm going.
I've laid out some interesting items of kitchenware and am trying out different positions and formats. Choosing subject matter is perplexing, so I've opted to use these objects like characters in a play that all have their own identities and are thrown together by fate to act out a story. I'm hoping that there will be lots of opportunities for the character of the story to develop as the colours and forms begin to interact. I haven't yet set up any lighting on the still life yet.
I know that I tire of painting the same thing for too long and so I intend to do several sketches of the objects to find a combination that I feel can be scaled up to a larger piece. Although the paintings in galleries that I generally prefer are the smaller ones that often resemble studies, I want to see how I can get some method going that will allow me to keep the painting "alive" while it evolves and moves to some kind of completion over a longer time span.
I would be interested to hear about your process for choosing, planning and painting a still life, either in class or through this blog.
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