I made a promise, or a resolution or proposal, last year, that I would like to produce pictures in series, with some kind of theme. So, with this one, it's small gouache paintings that concentrate on the texture of the paint, and the brush strokes. As usual, something happens that you don't expect...at first I am anxious and bored by the process...but then I begin to experience paint in a new way. I like the way the small size of the pictures dictates a new approach. Areas are blocked in in creamy, thick layers of paint. Details are eliminated. The plan for this series is to stick with it until I have done 50.
A friend of mine gave me a square sketchbook, something I don't usually use. So I thought it was just made for studies of faces. These are all done pretty quickly, using oil pastels and Caran d'Ache water soluble crayons.
Four new pictures that are part of a series I began a week or two ago. The images were intended as scenery, something like a stage backdrop, for figures I would collage into the foreground. But, strangely enough, the pictures have started to take on a life of their own and they seem to be quite happy to exist without people in them! The elements and motifs in the pictures keep getting stronger, so I have to modify my original intentions. I will take a back seat, keep painting, and wait until the first character appears...
***************************************************** There is something peaceful about making these little scenes with no people in them. My intention was to use them as collage backgrounds, and stick cut-out figures on them, but maybe I like them better like this.
I am working on a series of landscape backgrounds in gouache. Quite often while I am drawing or painting, I will find a phrase comes into my mind which helps to direct the way I am working. On this day it was "don't get too complicated". That thought helped me to apply the paint very precisely, but without being too fussy.
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Julia SuddabyTracking my art projects, week by week. Archives:
August 2014
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