30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 13

Someone told me that artists generally shouldn't show paintings in progress. I'm sure there are very good reasons for this. I'm sure we as artist some believe that should keep all of our technical abilities and development secret. When I worked in I/T I never withheld knowledge. It's not my nature, and I love teaching. It's the same way with art for me. Even if you have two artists painting the same subject side by side using the same techniques, the paintings won't be the same. Artists put themselves in the painting. I think forgers are fascinating not because they are so closely able to emulate masterwork but because they are able to keep their own selves out of the finished painting.

In keeping with the 30 Paintings in 30 Days project I'm showing my work. This painting may take a few days so you'll be able to see a real transition.

 "Hexidecimal dream f" in progress, 30x40, oil on linen, ©VP Miller

 Thinned oil washes were put down all over the canvas. The face was fleshed out a bit. Some parts of the layered image in the foreground (the man) were filled out a bit.

Click to see the first day of this painting.

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30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 12

The project has evolved from painting 30 paintings in 30 days, to painting daily for 30 days in January (except I just took the weekend off). 

I'm also not always going to do one painting per day. I think in the future if planning for another 30 days/30 paintings I would have preplanned. (cough) I highly recommend not only planning out ideas for paintings for the entire month, but also planning out a few weeks of easy meals. Yesterday, I managed to plan out the next two weeks of meals and half will be some sort of crock pot miracle. 

I would plan ideas/objects for daily paintings for still life and also locations with time of day, for plein air. Not that you have to stick with the plan, but it sure is handy when it's 2:00 in the afternoon and you haven't figured out what to start next for the day.

Today, I started on a large painting. This is one that I've wanted to tackle literally for years, but I had serious blocks when approaching it. This is a do-over. I've already painted this subject. But the (not quite) finished painting was stolen. It's a long story, and really not all that important. The main point is that I'm no longer giving the pain of having it taken from me any more energy. I plan on painting a better painting than it's last iteration.

Here's the beginning. The last time I painstakingly sketched on canvas and then discovered what happens when you apply thinned oils over it (it smears and you can no longer see your marks). This time I used odorless mineral spirit thinned oils to get the proportions down on canvas. It also allows you to make corrections on the fly by blotting and reapplying.

Beginning of "Hexidecimal Dream f", 30x40", oil on linen, ©VP Miller

Tomorrow I start laying in the color field.

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