Turquoise

Pencil and watercolor on paper
9 x 12
2010

Model: Lynette Shelley

$130 USD

end-of-the-year updates

hope everybody had a nice Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule. mine was better than expected, thank you. in general i am not very Christmas friendly, but when you have a child things have a different light. and this year they really had.

i've been posting stuff on this blog with an amazing slowness, sometimes days or even weeks after they actually happened. to tell the truth, the last couple months have not been easy, emotionally speaking, and since i am so good in letting the emotional interfere with everything else, things can go downhill easily if i don't stay strong. so, let's see here what i have been wanting to show you:

1. O Fortuna. i finally completed the first painting. it is called The One Who Kissed the Heart of The Earth, it is 24 x 30 inches, made with acrylics + watersoluble graphite pencils + white pastels on gessoed masonite board + blood and sweat. it is very different from everything i have done before, and i really really liked the result. the most fun is that most of what i had planned before and could not achieve "rationally" came naturally and intuitively, like the medieval feel. i don't consider it complete yet. i have nine more pieces to go and during the process something new might arrive that i will add to all the pieces to create unity.

some details:









my camera could not really capture it well. i think this last image is the truest i could achieve. the shot i got from the whole painting (which i don't dare to put in my humble A4 scanner to make into one thousand pieces and them put together on the Photoshop) doesn't do the justice, but is the best i could get so far:



i really need a good (maybe a semi-professional) camera.

2. another Yemanja painting.  the first huge one still patiently waits for attention, as i have started this 11 x 14 commission:





sometimes, when people cannot afford a piece, or want one that is already been sold, i am more than happy to do a second version, or a variation of that same piece.

3. watercolor illustrations. working with acrylics on board made me crave watercolor on paper again. so i did a couple pencil illustrations to decompress. (see next posts)

wishing you all a great New Year's filled with Blessings and much inspiration... i am very grateful to all of you  for the love and incredible support during all the year of 2010. count on me. Love to All!

weekend wip

"O Fortuna: The One Who Kissed the Heart of the Earth", in progress. from my phone.

i guess that is it. i think i am finally making it the way i wanted. :)

seeking the silence.

i have been totally absorbed in my seek for satisfactory solutions for my new works. it has not been easy. i am a perfectionist. i don't feel happy with anything that sounds shallow or meaningless. and i have my ideals about what my art in particular should be. there are points in the artist's development when you feel like you have to move on, to explore new things, to find new meanings to what you are doing. people love my ornamented, klimtish, colorful stuff. well, i do too. i took years of my life to find out that i was a colorful person inside -- in spite of wearing black all the time -- and that reflected in my art. however, i have to confess that, during the process of my art making, there's a point, when the final color glazes have not yet started to be applied, when i strangely sense that "this is it" feeling, but for an urge of pouring color and ornaments everywhere i end up losing the momentum.

like here:



and here:



(i don't know if i am making any sense at all.)

i've been trying, among others things, to hold the feeling of "that's enough, you don't need to scream so loud to make sense and be beautiful", the minimalism, the serenity and silence. i think i got that once with "Waterlily". Eastern philosophies teaches us about the meaning of the emptiness, and that reflects in their art. i think that one of the things that transmits that peacefulness you experience when observing a piece of Chinese or Japanese art, for example, besides the softness of the lines and colors, is the use of space. in most works, at least 30% of the area is an empty space. empty, but absolutely meaningful -- that emptiness is exactly what expresses reverence. here in the West, the emptiness bothers us. we just cannot be minimal. we have to fill up every space with stuff. when i paint, the background is the part that most bothers -- and intrigues -- me. i just can't leave the background alone and concentrate in the figure. i've tried many things, and if i don't fill up the space with little triangles, swirls and other visual paraphernalia, i don't feel good about the painting.

Zou Chuan-an

the approach i've been trying for a while is integration and adaptation. working on the background first, and then adding to it. make the figure to adapt to what the background commands. which is also sort a philosophical approach. to go with the flow, to dance according to the music. do not force, do not fight. just adapt. use the force you consider an enemy as an ally.

background was inspired in the texture and colors of a rock, and built with a sponge to give that grainy effect. love it.

when i was making the Materia series, i left each color of the 4 elements to guide me through the painting and teach me things. i found out how refreshing and invigorating the greens could be; the blue, so spiritual and apparently passive, can have a strength that sometimes is difficult to manage (in my opinion, is the most difficult color to work with). the same sensorial approach is being used during the making of the "O Fortuna" series, and it is probably something that will accompany my creative process for a while. working with the energy of the colors and the suggestions given by the shapes that will form by texturizing the backgrounds brings my process closer to a more "right side of the brain" attitude of making art. less rational, more psychic and visionary.

in progress: O Fortuna: The One Who Looks at the Mirror of Time

as expected, i rejected the former version and started another one, more carefully rendered. more focus on the pencil work. i think i like this version best.