paintin'
i've been painting boats with a seriousness which belies my usual careless aesthetic. off and on in my life i have had some notoriety for being lazy or just plain stubborn, and not without due cause. however, these paintings are a whole new animal, and one that i'm not unfamiliar with. it's the first time i have used photographs as reference in YEARS and even when i did it was rare. i have generaly always painted straight from life or used created imagery straight from concept and imagination. the resulting paintings were sometimes genius and sometimes trash. it really is very hard to invent a painting from nothing, and my stubborn need to do so in such a compulsive manner over the years seems to be paying off in the form of just being quick to know what i want to do with the subject and what context to place it in.
basically, in painting from a photograph, i am not painting THE photograph and truly no have allegiance to the photographs reality, but instead i am using it as a very basic reference for detail of the subject matter, and also as a way of discovering subject matter. i have been taking photos of the landscapes and modes of transportations that i love and translating them into the paintings i want to make of them.
it's important to note that this would be impossible to do at the rate and cost (nothing) that i am without my digital camera and computer. and printer. i've taken to driving around holding my camera, trying to catch a plane landing at the airport when it's hovering eerily close over the highway, the back end of a school bus as it's just turning out of view on the road, csx trains going 15 miles an hour with a mile long stretch of back-hoes in the midst of it's grey train cars.
i've been using text in my paintings for years now, and more seriously so in the past two, and suddenly i find myself hesitant to do so.
it's not that i am hesitant to destroy any aspect of what is beautiful or sublime about them (because in fact I WANT to) but more that i haven't yet nailed down the specific subjects of them. they all have a subject in a general sense- clearly industry and travel in the sense of movement, but they're individual subjects have yet to make themselves apparent to me.
i'm sure i'll figure it out. i'll let you know when i do.
this blog is really out of character with everything else. but you'll live.
basically, in painting from a photograph, i am not painting THE photograph and truly no have allegiance to the photographs reality, but instead i am using it as a very basic reference for detail of the subject matter, and also as a way of discovering subject matter. i have been taking photos of the landscapes and modes of transportations that i love and translating them into the paintings i want to make of them.
it's important to note that this would be impossible to do at the rate and cost (nothing) that i am without my digital camera and computer. and printer. i've taken to driving around holding my camera, trying to catch a plane landing at the airport when it's hovering eerily close over the highway, the back end of a school bus as it's just turning out of view on the road, csx trains going 15 miles an hour with a mile long stretch of back-hoes in the midst of it's grey train cars.
i've been using text in my paintings for years now, and more seriously so in the past two, and suddenly i find myself hesitant to do so.
it's not that i am hesitant to destroy any aspect of what is beautiful or sublime about them (because in fact I WANT to) but more that i haven't yet nailed down the specific subjects of them. they all have a subject in a general sense- clearly industry and travel in the sense of movement, but they're individual subjects have yet to make themselves apparent to me.
i'm sure i'll figure it out. i'll let you know when i do.
this blog is really out of character with everything else. but you'll live.
posted by emily at 1:26:00 AM
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