An Island Where No One Lives

Note that “B” in the title above–yes, it’s yet another painting to unfinish over the space of a year or so!  This one came (or will come) about from two directions.  The first was a Cafe Terrace project, to do something in various shades of green.  The second was a Notebook in Hand project, to do artwork for a proposed calendar. 

Neither project really rang my chimes, as it were, but the idea of combining them was intriguing.  

So, the first thing to do is take out a blank canvas and get busy with the greenery.

Next, we cover the canvas.  I used way too much paint above, and thus had a sizable blob of undetermined greenishness back on the palatte within a few minutes. 

Hard to see in the image above, but there are streaks of light and dark in there that are beginning to form a pattern.  And from a pattern comes an idea.

Not always a good idea, you’ll note.  The initial patterns suggested a prone figure with the suggestion of a face.  I tried going that route and I didn’t like it at all.

That’s okay, though, because we’re early enough in this that a wrong step or two won’t derail the process.  So we smoothed over that skull-like face and looked again.

This time, the idea of moonlit rocks by some long-abandoned ocean shore came to mind, and we decided we could go with that.  It’s only paint, after all, and it can be repainted if we end up in a bad corner.

(You may note that if you rotate the image 90 degrees counter-clockwise, that it resembles a face in profile.  I considered that briefly before deciding against pursuing that angle.  However, since faces seem to want to form in this work, who knows?  This may end up being a portrait after all.)

It was at this point that the Notebook in Hand project–”Myths, Legends and Fairytales”–began to assert itself.  I didn’t (and don’t) like that theme in particular (it seems rather narrow), but with what I had in front of me…ideas began to form. 

So the first thing we have to do is go in with some detailing, and allow the ideas to flesh themselves out. 

So that’s where we stand, as of this early bit of June.  I feel fairly good about progress and direction, so we’ll see where it goes.  Updates as they happen, and as always thanks for popping by.