Category Archives: abstract expressionism

Year Long Canvas Project #4

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

newclass 004

Year Long Canvas in progress  – un-named, copyright 2014 Jo Ann Brown-Scott

Ok well class on Monday was daunting – the wind was blowing hard and many students had mishaps just getting up to and through the Denver Art Students League doors, which are preceded by many steep steps. There were actually 2 people who fell and needed first aid for minor, but bleeding, cuts and bruises. The never ending parade of canvases in and out of the double doors at the top of the concrete stairs, like a fluid gallery show with legs, is entertaining on a nice day but accompanied by wind or even rain, sleet, snow or hail it becomes difficult to watch. Not only canvases but people with various movable carts full of art supplies, carrying everything they and their imaginations require for the afternoon. That’s just the logistics of it – no way to get around it. Then you settle into the room and set up your art camp.

My year long canvas and I, plus one other canvas in progress and one that is finished but needed its final critique, made it in just fine, but across the room was a woman who was one of the casualties. Blood happening, particularly on the face of anyone, is not a fun thing to see. She had hit the pavement face first. She was basically fine, needing no stitches, but cut inside both lips, a small gash on the bridge of her nose, badly bruised already plus quite shaken and needing first aid so we all made sure she got the care she needed. It took us all awhile to calm down.

My YLC (year long canvas) had just 2 colors, Paynes gray and then Naples yellow, overlapped in a diagonal swoop, as you remember from the previous blog post last week on this subject. My esteemed instructor, Homare Ikeda, took a long glance at it as I set up camp and pronounced that is was a great start, with a large smile on his face. Wow – what had seemed underwhelming to me and so effortless and simple got the thumbs up. I was encouraged. I decided to proceed with work on it while I was fresh. I added a couple areas of white. Then I worked in some larger areas of Warm gray – I call it “dove gray” – because it is neutral and also because it has faint undertones of lavender. Maybe that is an indication of things to come, maybe not.

I am attempting to remain neutral for as long as I can because the addition of COLOR! brings such emotional reaction. We are all sucked in with the sensuality and the strength of color. Once you allow it entry, it can take over at the expense of all else and you might get so caught up in its spell that composition takes a back seat and the painting is out of your control. I see that happen to me and many other painters. You have to control that lovely monster.

Even with the little bit of work I have done so far, as I work am asking and checking myself, always walking the multiple lines of – Is the composition  merely ok? –  is it boring and basic and just barely enough to work, lacking potential for greatness, and not impressive enough yet to be better than average? Then adding more work and asking  – are the new additions an enhancement or not? Is there any one area that is really awful, or perhaps even really excellent, but must still be sacrificed (covered up) for the sake of the democracy of the entire dynamic?  Every stroke has to play well with all the others. As I paint along, I constantly ask myself what more can be done, knowing I can’t do much more today. I have to pace myself..

Several people walk up to it and say they like it just the way it is! Already!

Since I am assigned this year long project, I need to keep working, well past the times when I want so badly to stop because it works, it is exciting, it is strong. After some thought, I walk away from it. All done for today.

I love color, pattern and texture, but this project is all about restraint. I was feeling so restrained that I was comatose. The fast and furious painting that came after my short amount of time spent working on the YLC was a reaction  –  a quick and distinctive answer to that restraint. I let loose – see photo below. It is a small canvas (12×24) so it was completed in the rest of the afternoon and left me feeling happy. I think I detect a smile on the face of the art Buddha.

newclass 002

Acrylic painting by Jo Ann Brown-Scott, copyright 2014 not yet titled

 

The Creative Epiphany – Year-Long Canvas Post #2

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

??????????

Mixed Media Collage by Jo Ann Brown-Scott, copyright 2014

“Having a favourite colour is like having a favourite lung.”  (Sara Genn)

The other day, in my official #1 blog post about the one year-long canvas project I have been challenged to start, I showed you photos of my process of laying down the base coat of paint in preparation for the start of it. (See my Archives for that and also for further explanation of this challenge.) Now I am about ready to make my first gesture of color on the ONE YEAR LONG CANVAS. I think I will save that simple action for Monday’s class, but already I am asking myself what color I will use, and what type of brushstroke. My instructor’s directions ask that I take plenty of time between sessions with the painting, stringing the process out for a year while resisting all temptation to stop at certain places where I believe it could be called a powerful, strong, finished composition and call it done. Instead I need to keep going, obviously sacrificing that good work and morphing it into something else by adding more paint.

Keep in mind that this painting will be an abstract expressionist style, but don’t be of the assumption that since it is not going to be a realistic painting that it is any less difficult to start….you need to understand that abstract art is realism to its artist – it is just not always recognizable as any particular thing.

Now actually, considering the 365-day duration of this project and all of the many layers of paint it will ultimately carry, you might say that the initial gesture is irrelevant. If you look at my mixed media painting above, there is absolutely no way you could identify the first brushstroke. It is buried. From a practical standpoint the first stroke is probably irrelevant, but from an inspirational, emotional and spiritual viewpoint it is monumental in importance. So it seems to me, anyway, being the person expected to be making the gesture.

I once knew an artist who just could not ever bring himself to make the first brushstroke on any pure white sheet of expensive Arches rough watercolor paper. At the time I was a watercolor student and I knew the fear of that moment well – feeling frozen as you stand in front of the paper looking at it, sometimes for 20 minutes or more, waiting for the thaw of your mind and your arm as you talk yourself down from being so intimidated that you cannot speak, think or create. My friend came to a crazy solution to his problem – he took the paper outside and placed it in the driveway and ran over it several times with his car. That was his method for “having his way with it” and showing it who was boss. Then he could begin. It brings to mind the terrifying scene in the film “Captain Phillips” where the Somali pirates have boarded the ship, made it to the Captain’s perch and the scary leader of them says to the Tom Hanks character who is the Captain , “Look at me. Look at me! I am the Captain now!”

You have to take charge at some unexpected and opportune moment and show that paper or canvas who is in charge. I believe even the art Buddha would approve of that action. Once that is done you can lean back a little and loosen up, apologize to it for being so aggressive, and carry on with a gentler touch. Because in the long haul, you have to be friends with your art.

Next installment comes after Monday’s class.

The Creative Epiphany – The One-Year Painting Challenge, Official Blog #1

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

dasl   room   floor

Denver Art Student’s League – the building, a classroom, the floor – March 17th, 2014    

In review – My esteemed instructor for Advanced Contemporary Painting, Homare Ikeda, has offered me a challenge – to work on a painting for a solid year. Certainly not at the exclusion of other work but parallel with all my other works. The canvas, we have decided, need not be larger than 30×40″ and could in fact be a bit smaller. The task, which of course I accepted, is more about the 365-day journey than the destination – more about having patience and resilience than the amount of time required – more about trusting yourself with the addition of each and every gesture than in asking for constant direction from the instructor. For a person like me who usually works quite fast, it is an exercise in pacing and meditation over the work being done.

**For the first two (unofficial) posts introducing this project, see my archives titled “Art Imitates Life, as they say…” published 3/13/2014 and “Back To The Classroom, Seeing Things Again for the First Time” published 3/11/2014

March 18th, 2014

Today I have begun. I have finally made my decision about the canvas size based upon Homare’s recommendation not to choose an odd-ball size (I was considering a tall narrow size of 20×60″) that would only add unnecessary frustration to this challenge. So the chosen size is 24×30″

It’s almost a blizzard now, where I am, in my second floor home studio south of the Denver metro area, but it won’t last long. It’s SPRING! Great day to paint. The north light in this room is wonderful, especially with lots of snow flying around outside.

I begin by painting the entire canvas with my favorite base color – unbleached titanium. It’s warm, it’s neutral, and it’s friendly with the color palette I usually hang with. I slap it on with a large palette knife because that also adds subtle texture, and I am all about texture, color and pattern.

palletteknife   closeup

blog1   texture

Now it has to dry before I can do anything else to it. That doesn’t take long, especially in Colorado’s altitude and low humidity, but you can also use a hair dryer if you are impatient, which I am supposed to NOT BE in this challenge. I am already getting excited to do more. Calm down. I need to watch it a lot, getting to know it. Calm down. Looking for inspiration. I might be hit with a flash of brilliance….something I want to do right away! Color! But I might not touch it again for several days…calm down.

Stay tuned……

The Creative Epiphany – Art Imitates Life, as they say…

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

lrgcanvas

In my previous post I talked about beginning my first art class in decades at Denver Art Students League, and what it felt like to me, finding myself in a bare bones classroom again filled with people dedicated to the pursuit of creating abstract expressionist paintings. Let me just say that it was a thrill. To put it mildly. It was an indication, a life-marker in fact, that I was again going to take my art career seriously. Oh I have taken it seriously long before this, but there has recently been an interval of time when I was teaching art and not progressing much in the level of my own art. I did that for 3 years. Oh yes you do learn from teaching – you learn from your students and you stretch yourself as well because you are always searching for great new techniques to demonstrate. But as for me, I did not paint privately as much as I should have, for juried shows and galleries. I turned out a steady stream of art but none of it was critiqued and judged by anyone who was truly qualified, which is a mistake because an artist needs feedback and constructive criticism.

I also mentioned, in the previous post, the project I was offered – and challenged with – on the first day of class by my instructor. It is the challenge of making a commitment to work on one particular painting for a solid year, not to the exclusion of all other paintings but in addition to them – in other words I begin to do a painting and give it my thoughts and intermittent attention for a year’s worth of my time. I walk up to it, I work on it for however long it feels right, I put it down for a while, giving both me and the painting a refreshing rest to catch our breath. Of course most every artist works on some paintings over a long period of time during which the he/she artist might purposely ignore the piece, leaving it still alive but in a dormant coma in the closet, and then one day the he/she artist decides to pull it out of the closet and look at it again to actually “see it again for the first time”. That practice is highly beneficial, and usually in an instant, the he/she artist has new ideas popping into mind and the painting is conscious again, gasping for oxygen as its life gets moving in a second-chance new direction. I love saving the lives of  forgotten canvases. It is frugal and quite satisfying and it makes the art Buddha happy. The practice has proved effective time and again for me and many others. But not for a solid year…..and not while leaving it out in the studio where it takes up space for a 365 day period of time…. staring at you, screaming for attention, often driving you crazy I would assume. I am sure I will get sick & tired of looking at it sometimes. But I also assume that many learning opportunities will be associated with this challenge, which of course I immediately accepted. It has to be an exercise in patience, perseverance, dedication, determination, love/hate relationships, keeping an open mind, not being discouraged, striving consistently for excellence and not settling for the easiest and most obvious solutions, to name just a few of the ways to learn and mature as an artist from the experience.

Sounds a lot like life, don’t you think? Wow. Art imitates life all the damn time, in case you had not noticed.

I will be blogging about this, from time to time, with pictures of the work in progress. I have already had a small but significant wake-up call observation. This painting must be large. I could not work on a 24×36 for a long and winding, roller-coaster year….I need SPACE for a whole year. But guess what – I can’t fit a huge painting in my car, and I will have to be taking the canvas into my classroom from time to time for critiques. I have worked on very large canvases before but I had a different car then.

One option would be to do a diptych, each piece as large as my car could accommodate. Maybe that will work. I’ll figure it out I am sure.

So how large is your life canvas? Does it fit in your vehicle or are you living large?

The Creative Epiphany – Back to the Classroom; Seeing Things Again for the First Time

Posted on by Jo Ann Brown-Scott

dasl   room  Art Students League of Denver

This afternoon at 1pm sharp I found myself in a bare-bones art classroom again, awaiting the arrival of my instructor for Advanced Contemporary Painting at the Denver Art Student’s League. I was excited to such a degree that I could not help remember all of my “first days” of school, from kindergarten through college at CU in Boulder, and the many art instructors I have enjoyed (one or two not so much) over a long and winding career in fine art. That I still have such a passion for painting speaks to how powerful the pull of creativity and the artistic process can be, should you choose to surrender yourself completely to it. I am an art slave, owned by and under the spell of art. The smell of the room, the years of dripped paint dried all over the floor, the organic nature of the spattered shirted people struggling through the door carrying all the magical paraphernalia required to nurture each artistic soul – that is what turns me on. It was like being in the legendary Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory only with paint. I was giddy with anticipation and nervous, hoping I was not assuming too much by choosing that class….

One particular relative of mine, although near and dear to my heart, keeps urging, almost demanding me to paint as I did 25 years ago when my subject matter was Colorado landscapes and they were selling like fine art hot cakes. But all of you who pick up brushes to express yourselves know that one must grow and evolve as an artist and that any self-respecting painter who does the same kind of theme all the live-long day through all the live-long years of his life is a boring person indeed. It is like reading and re-reading the same books, watching the same old movies you saw 25 years ago to the exclusion of all the new award-winning films, and it is certainly like living constantly in the past, resting on one’s past accomplishments until they get so raggedy that one is called an arrogant has-been in ridiculous denial of the NOW. Creative people, if nothing at all, must live in the NOW.

I have done that – I have kept current, tried much of the new wiz-bang stuff, produced a huge body of work, taught my skills to other people, showed in gallery situations and private shows and sold a good percentage of what I produced. But still, I need guidance from someone wiser than me – someone who sees my art in a different light. I want to do the best art of my life in this very decade of my life and be remembered for it. If there is ever a retrospective show in my honor, please let there be clearly visible, stunning evolution evident in that body of work.

I am again the student, and it feels so good. My first challenge, from Homare Ikeda my instructor, is to begin a painting and allow a full year to finish it. Obviously this is an exercise in patience, steady progress, resilience, determination and the evolution of working on a project with no pressure. Sounds easier than it will be, I am sure, but I cannot wait to get started. This painting would be done at home, using most class time for other paintings, so it will be picked up and continued at my own pace, then put down again for a rest until I am in the mood to pick it up again and add to it. Periodically I will take it into class for critiques and classroom work. What’s the purpose? To show change – to indicate progress – to evolve – to grow as an artist. To surprise myself! Exactly what I was hoping for.

I am going to keep track of this progress, take photos, and from time to time I will report here in this blog with a photo of my current incarnation of THE YEAR LONG PAINTING, so if you care enough to see what’s going on, please stay tuned. I will be as surprised as you are, I am sure.