May 21, 2015

A Private World


This evening, I made a small field trip to check out some ducks with my duck... with hopes of a little time to sit and eat and rest and enjoy the evening. Being a somewhat chilly night following  a very grey day with a late work schedule, I arrived much later than I thought I would and as the light was already fading, the occasion was more suited to wearing a jacket than summer attire. Not many people and even less ducks were out at all. In sitting and 'reflecting' though, I thought to take a few phone photos as ideas to put to canvas. I have always loved this barn and it's awesome color scheme along the water and so I tried to capture a few images to review tonight as potential scenes that I would like to get into paint. 

I have always wanted to paint and over the years have made some feeble attempts at it, but never with great success or compete canvas to show. To date, my only finished work is the small square canvas shown below of a loving father giraffe leaning into his daughter that I did as a birthday present to my own daughter this past year. She loves giraffes and I was delighted later to find it is now a treasured possession to her. Anyway, tonight got me thinking again about another.

The thing that I always liked about painting was that you could literally create you own reality, your own version of life, a private world so to speak... as seen through your eyes. Photography has a similar appeal, but before widespread use of photoshop and with a few exceptions in the advertising world, what you got was what was actually there. With painting, you could perceive anything... any way you wanted... and your hand, pigment and brushes where the only limitations to bringing it out into actual reality for someone else to see and make it theirs too. In the above scene, the first thing to go would be the fence post and telephone pole for sure. You see? In painting, I don't have to 'remove' it as I was tempted to do in the image above, but I can just chose what to put down in paint. There is wonderful freedom.  After taking the photo, I saw someone doing something in the window and I immediately wanted to get closer to see them, what they were doing, to see the detail of this distant figure. I was no more than 200' away, but with out a bridge, it was impossible.

So, having a day off tomorrow, I will try again and go back there in the late afternoon, with pallet, easel and paints in hand to see what I can come up with as the light shifts from sunny to sunset. Painting for me is definitely a hands on activity (which I am usually pretty good at) and certainly a learning process... one where I will try to create a reality that I already see in my head. I think I will leave the duck at home this time. I don't think he will mind.