Studio Sink

Pottery Studio Sink, Pownal, VT.  12x12 inches, oil on linen panel.  Other painters have done studio sinks.  There's a tradition.  Three painters that come immediately to mind are Richard Diebenkorn, Lucien Freud and Antonio Lopez Garcia, though I know there are more.  

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

This morning I read on the @diebenkornfoundation Instagram account that Richard Diebenkorn worked only on paper for two years, 1981-2, before returning to painting on canvas.  I might be wrong about this, but the implication is that this was a transition time for Diebenkorn, who went on to dedicate the final years of his career with the great Ocean Park paintings, a series of paintings that led from one to another if there ever was one.  I think that Philip Guston went through a similar period where he did only drawings prior to his last phase of Klu Klux Klansmen and smoking cigars.  Focusing upon drawing for a while can be a fruitful method to uncover next steps.

Three drawings that I did at Sheep Hill in Williamstown, MA one or a few summers ago.  7x14 inches.  Charcoal on paper.

A Pond and A Big Change

Early this morning I went to the local pond (actually there are two ponds, and this is the smaller of the two), and painted for an hour.  The result is this 9x12 oil on panel.

In an unrelated topic, other than painting, I've been reading books by and about the painter Philip Guston.  I've always wondered about his change from abstraction to figurative work, and not just any figurative work, but cartoony, clumsy-like, mythic depictions of light bulbs, Klansmen, pyramids, shoes, one-eyed heads, and so on.  When Richard Diebenkorn switched from abstraction to figurative work, and then back again, the transitions were gradual and consistent.

Guston's changed content, though painted similarly to his abstract handling of paint, occupied the last ten years of his life.  Guston unfortunately died at the relatively young age of 67.  His abstract work seems angst driven, linked in my mind to the popular existentialist sensibility of the time.  However, he seems to have reached a point where abstraction was empty for him, but the angst was always there, and led him to rediscover what he really wanted to do as a painter.  His changeover wasn't well received.  But today he seems to be highly regarded for the change and the work of his last ten years.

Studio Work

Two studio drawings from today and yesterday.  The top is 9x12 pastel and charcoal, and the bottom 9x12, charcoal only.  Thor, the fabulous artist whose studio I share, did a lot of work this past week, and  "naturally" rearranged the table with all the studio junk.   I told him I was not going to do anything with the table until he was gone, so that I knew it wouldn't change for a while.

As I suggested earlier, this table represents the muck of creation for me.  I'm searching it for something, an entry point, a means to something I haven't quite glimpsed yet, a way forward.  As you may have guessed, and even if you didn't, I've been looking at the drawings and paintings that Diebenkorn did in the late 50's - early 60's, when he was doing studio drawings and paintings (and prints).  I think there's something in that work to build upon.

A Field in Breukelen

This oil diptych is 11x28.  When I finished the left side, I wasn't quite satisfied, so I added on, and it works much better now.  The flat roof segments at the right balance the vertical building segments on the left.  The physical split is a repetition of the visual splits.  That's the way it worked out.  I didn't really plan it that way in advance.  When I originally saw this field surrounded by a fence and buildings, I thought of the paintings of Richard Diebenkorn, who has always been one of my favorite artists.