Taking in and filling up
Slowing down on production in order to take up fresh art inspiration
I feel like I haven’t been doing a lot of painting lately. However, taking a look at my bullet journal chart, I see I’ve been painting three times a week consistently, sketching once a week, plus doing other art stuff (like prepping or stretching canvases and panels) multiple times a week. That feels pretty okay actually. I’m definitely not in high production mode, but I fully expected that because we went away on vacation for a week at Christmas. I find I will always lose the thread on a big painting project by going on vacation. This time I prepared for that by not leaving much undone and not starting any new projects or ideas. I have a couple Alice floral paintings I’m finishing up and a “big blue” that I’ve kinda got no idea on atm. Blue guy is looking like a landscape but it’s really got away from my original idea... I’m going to let it be for a bit until it tells me where it’s going.
I feel right now —post holidays, dead of winter, recovering from a cold— that it’s just time to take in rather than put out. I saw so many amazing paintings in NYC at Christmas. The Matisse/Derain and Degas/Manet exhibits at the Met were stunning. I saw SO many fabulous Monet’s at NYC and Boston, and I am still very much processing all this. Feels like I had a giant meal and my body is not even quite sure yet how to start digesting lol.
I’m not often directly inspired or influenced by other art or artists. It’s more like disparate bits and pieces get into my brain, swim around in there, bubble away, and then trickle out in unexpected and disconnected ways months later. For example, when I take a class I’m absolutely awful about doing the lessons or projects. I never want to paint like the instructor, I just want to soak up their way of thinking and doing things. Maybe one little bit will work its way into my process.
One of the things I am taking away from the art I saw on holiday is not to be afraid of color. I’ve been using some pretty bright colors lately and kind of crazy greens. I feel a lot of people judge bright color as childish, not sophisticated. I hear them in my head complaining about how Viridian green is NOT in nature. But after seeing those Matisse’s and Derain’s, I’m like nah, fuck that. I need MORE color! I don’t care if it seems amateurish. I’m enjoying it.
What also caught my attention again and again was bold and rougher brushwork. I love paintings where you see the artist’s hand. I was fascinated with Degas’ variety of finishes, some very fine some very…I call them rough but it’s not really rough. It’s actually quite delicate. When he uses just enough pastel or super thin oil on cardboard on tinted paper, it’s stunning. It doesn’t need more work or more finish. Getting to that point is the dream! A lot of Manet’s work on the other hand felt too polished for me. The concepts, colors, and contrast is very bold but the brushwork is often too perfect. For example, his Luncheon on the Grass I actually prefer the studies to the finished painting. Well, something to keep in mind when I find myself slipping into fussy over-working mode.
Besides taking in a million paintings, I’m also inhaling books right now. I am almost always connecting my paintings to a book in some way but I don’t expect what I’ve been reading lately to directly influence any work. It’s still inspiration though. There doesn’t have to be a direct input-output connection ya know. I feel all types of great art and beauty, man-made or nature-made, fills the cup and inspires the muse. Interacting with the art of another person is a way of staying in flow if that makes sense.
So I’m reading
War and Peace: only about 200 pages left and I don’t know what I’ll do when I can’t get my nightly laugh at Pierre’s unhinged behavior or shake my head at Natasha’s man problems.
East of Eden: Steinbeck’s descriptions of California always inspires me and EofE has a dark undertone that I’m always trying to figure out how to bring out in a painting. It’s the same thing with Alice in Wonderland, something foreboding underneath the pretty exterior. It’s one of those elusive ideas that I haven’t been able to catch hold of and get into my work..
Also reading the East of Eden journal of a novel which is the notes Steinbeck wrote to his editor each day before he started work on the book. It’s always fascinating to peek into an artist’s process. Little things like Steinbeck complaining or rejoicing over a pencil are so relatable lol.
Paradise Lost: this one I’m reading with the help of a translation into more modern English because although a lot of the writing is straight forward sometimes Milton gets a on a tangent and I’m just like, what in the hell is going on. The translation is then helpful to get me back on track lol. This book is so goth though omg, the drama, the atmosphere. It’s half teenage goth dream/ half metalhead album cover. Like I really relate to these demons though, they make lot of good points haha. I won’t be painting any angels or demons but there is, as I said, some serious atmosphere that could be used for inspiration.
Macbeth: I just finished reading the play and rewatching the Coen brothers movie. Talk about atmosphere and foreboding. I loved Denzel in this and the woman who played the three witches blew me away. You can never go wrong with Shakespeare for inspiration. He’s an endless well. I think I want to read King Lear next.
Various poetry: I’ve been trying to dip into poetry more often. It’s such a good quick fix of inspiration and flow. I’ve been reading Whitman, a little Langston Hughes and Shelley. I just got the Norton poetry anthology so I want to read a couple of poems a day and find some new poets to connect with.
Joseph Campbell: my morning read right now is Campbell’s Myths to Live by. I just read a couple pages before work. I’m so interested in the history of myths and religious stories as myths. Why we humans have always and probably will always use myths and stories to ground ourselves in the world. I think it gives us comfort because our brains cannot fundamentally accept a world based in chaos and chance.
So that’s my main reading list at the moment plus I am constantly dipping into art books. I’m reading and flipping through a Monet, one from the Matisse exhibit, and a big one from the National Gallery. Constantly just filling that cup of inspiration and waiting patiently for it to make its way back out.
