james-luscombe.com

landscape: finished

landscape: details

The following photos represent detailed areas from the landscape that I am currently working on. The color is way off, because I took them with my iPhone, under less than optimal conditions. However, I think they give a fairly accurate sense of the technique overall. I will take better photos later, under natural light, with a real camera and post those as well. But for the time being, here they are...

landscape: current

This piece is still in the relative, early stages. To a certain extent, everything here is essentially still underpainting. My goal with this piece is to, in a way, take what the Impressionists did with light and reinterpret the idea through texture. So that when the piece is completed, there will not be so much, defined objects or forms, but rather, textural inferences that define the environment.

When I paint in acrylics, I use a broad array of tools, but seldom brushes for anything other than washes. I also lean toward very heavy application of the medium, with various "foreign" components added to the paint. I do this to achieve variation in the finished textures. For example, I may want certain areas to crack, like clay in a dried lake bed. Or I may desire parts to be either fluffy and raised, or very rigid and sharp, etc. To accomplish these "nuances", I might throw a pile of ash or sawdust into my paint bowl. I have even filed a chunk of soapstone down to fine powder and mixed it with polyurethane and pigment. 

My main tools are my hands. I need to feel the tactile quality of the paint in order to understand what it wants me to do with it. I have a very intimate relationship with my process and my medium, feeling it on my hands enhances that. However, I often use things like, sticks, knives, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, sponges, newspaper, and string to name a few. I am a strong believer in non-tradional expression and tools.

I am looking forward to continuing work on this piece, as each day brings new depth and life to it. I will continue to post more along the way as it continues to evolve.

returning to myself

Over the last couple of days I have returned to my self portrait and continued working away at it. I have finished work on the background and am quite pleased with the result. The color has turned out as I had hoped it would and the textural elements have the weight and feel I was going for. I have also resumed work on the figure, (myself). I have been concentrating on the arm, to allow myself time to figure out what to do with the face and body. So far, so good! I still need to complete work on the hand, finishing the remaining finger and reworking some of the shadows but otherwise, the arm is nearly complete.

switching gears

A few days back I decided to switch gears again and start working with oils, painting the face of my self portrait. Admittedly, I have been a bit lax, in that I haven't been photographing and posting each day's progress. However, I have gone at it again tonight and below is a shot of the current state of this piece. Overall I am happy with what I have been doing, but I think it is time to step away from the easel for a couple of days to regain some perspective. I think that when I resume working, I will concentrate on finishing the drawing phase before I pick up another brush. Mainly because I feel that I am over working things and if I continue, I will do more harm than good, but also because I need to allow the work that I have done some time to dry. (Ahh, working in oils again... how I have missed them!)

most recent progress

This is where I left off on my self portrait, as of two nights ago. I have since done some further work on the arm and hand, but have not gotten around to photographing it. As I had mentioned in previous postings, I had reached a point of impasse and managed to work through it. However, it wasn't until I actually put some paint onto the canvas that the real breakthrough came. I think that the roadblock that I was stuck behind was that this piece did not feel like a painting to me. (Probably because it wasn't... yet, it was a drawing on a canvas). Once I started to apply paint to the surface, it was like a light coming on, suddenly, I was working on a painting. Now, I know exactly where I am going with the piece again and I think that my original idea was a good one. With that in mind, it is along this path that I will travel for the time being.

looking inward again, (a story of distraction, or perhaps contemplation)

The other day I decided to take a break from working on the "rabbit" painting, for several reasons. The first being that I had reached a bit of a roadblock with regard to the "sky" plane. Basically, I love what is happening with the ground plane, but am less than thrilled with the upper half of the piece. As such, I have shelved it for the time being in favor of working on something else. My first instinct was to pull "be still" off the shelf and go back to work on it. That thought last all of ten minutes before I put it back on the shelf, right beside "rabbit".

I think that part of this change of direction is due to my desire to start hacking away at a spiffy new stretched canvas that the Mrs. gave me as an anniversary gift. For over a week, that beauty sat in the corner of the studio, calling to me, taunting me. Finally, I had to throw it up on the easel and have my wicked way with it!

What I found myself doing as a result, was beginning work on another self portrait. (Go figure!?) Anyway, out came the conte and away I went. So far, I am very pleased with where the drawing is going. As is customary, it doesn't necessarily look a whole lot like me, but it does embody the spirit of my inner angst, which is plenty good enough for me!

What I am finding particularly interesting about working on this new self portrait is the dialog, or better yet, the debate that I am having with myself about what to do when I get to the point of actually applying paint to it. Before I ever laid down the first stroke, I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I got around to the painting portion of the piece. However, the further I go with the drawing, the less certain I become about how to paint this piece. Several ideas have surfaced and been socked away in the back of my mind, each having it's own distinct appeal, but none have quite arrived at the point of being the clear winner.

I guess I'll just have to trust the piece to guide me in the direction that it needs to go, when we get to that point. Until then, "be still" and "rabbit" will rest peacefully on the shelf awaiting their chance to lead me down a path, as yet undiscovered. And this new self portrait will continue to hold my hand and mind until such time as it finds completion, or it's place on the shelf!

through different eyes

the secret life of nuance

I have been working on this piece, which I have titled "rabbit", for a few weeks now and am finding more and more about it that I like. The further I go, the more I learn about how I paint and how that mirrors the way that I view life. This painting began with a simple idea, 'paint a figure in a dynamic pose' was all that I had given myself to work with. The first step for me, was to comb through some old magazines that I had laying around, to find a figure that seemed like a good reference. My search was not particularly fruitful, or so it seemed to me on that night. What I did find was a photo of a young man, standing in a most 'non-dynamic' pose. Yet, there was something about this figure that appealed to me and so I began sketching.

When I began applying the first layer of paint, my approach was rather haphazard. I started throwing a heavy, chaotic swirl of pinkish paint onto the surface of the panel, careful not to obscure any of the sketch that I had done. When I was finished with that, I was not convinced that I was happy with what I had done, or where I might be able to go from there. So went the next several night's work, another whirling, swirling blend of color and texture, followed by another and another.

This continued for some time, until I picked up a tube of water soluable oil paint and shifted my focus to the figure. Again, I spent several nights working at building out the texture and overall dynamic of the figure, never quite getting to the point where I was really satisfied with where the piece was going. Nevertheless, I kept at it, night after night, trying to get to the 'Eureka" moment. It didn't come.

So again I switched gears and began another new approach, this time reworking the surface's visual texture rather than it's physical texture. I want to create a dynamic within the piece that is counterintuitive to what the superficial face of the paint would seem to imply. In other words, the underlying textures that I created with the heavy applications of paint, are not in any way related to the purely visual textures of the layers that I am building on top of them. In fact, they are in direct opposition to the weight and depth of the paint they they are on top of.

What I am realizing as a result of this way of painting, (which I have kind of realized previously, but am growing more certain of, the further I go), is that there is a great deal happening in my work, that may not be apparent at first glance. The depth, the truth in my work is under the surface. It has to be found, hidden away beneath layer upon layer of nondescript, implied meaning.

Sure, you can stand across the room and see what I have done and get the superficial 'face' of it, but to truly understand what painting, and indeed life, means to me, you have to get up close and study it. You must try to deconstruct the finished piece, breaking it down to it's component parts and then try to reconstruct it. However, if you are successful at deconstructing the process, no matter how hard you try to see it as you had, the superficial face of it will never be quite the same again.

I think there is something in the nuances, in the most subtle, quiet places that define everything else. They are the forgotten, ignored, unappreciated parts of life that we all take for granted. Yet, if we take the time to see them, to really look beyond what is easy and obvious, we begin to see the real depth of the world around us, as well as the depth within us. This is what painting is about to me, at least for the time being. I look forward to going where ever else the nuances take me in the future.

trying something new

Yesterday I picked up a tube of water soluable oil paint, the first time that I have ever tried this medium. I was a little skeptical at first, but when I took the cap off the tube and saw how thick the paint inside was, I was pretty much hooked. Being that this is something of an experiment for me, the tube that I picked up is zinc white. I figured that I could mix other, (acrylic) colors into it and try to get the most bang for my buck.

Thus far, I am absolutely thrilled with this new medium. It is playing very nicely with my other paints, mixing well and whatnot. Also, I am thrilled to come back to my painting today and find that the medium is still wet and workable! Perhaps this is the first, tiny step toward my return to painting with oils. I'm sure that day is coming, but for now I am perfectly content to play with the tools that I have and explore and experiment and make my way back to oils and canvas when the time is right.

Below is a close-up of a section of the piece that I am currently working on. Now, I am going back out into the "studio" to further explore this new medium.