(of how I paint)

I let the process of painting influence me.

I don't necessarily have a clear, precise image of what I want to paint beforehand. Frequently, I will start to paint, see something- a mark, a pattern, on the canvas. And that will inform me what to do next. Sometimes this works, other times it does not.

I also paint physically. Often times really pressing down on the canvas, vigorously swiping the brush back and forth.

No title

I always seem to go back to wanting to depict physical space (distance) in my paintings. I have been interested in this for 3 years now. There is something about manipulating the surface, whether it be canvas or paper, that I am interested in. Being able to show space and depth on a flat surface is an idea that I like.

Why is it important for my paintings?

Well maybe it is because when I am out there, running primarily, I am looking out into the distance, towards the horizon line. I still need to find out why it is that I am attracted to the horizon. I kind of know why, but the words aren't there for me to articulate it. It is more of a feeling for now.

I will write some more stuff later

Lilford Gallery

I forgot the mention this.

http://lilfordgallery.com/

I found this earlier in the day whilst taking a break from painting.

Two artists that I really like are Katrina Taylor (her website isn't working now) and Ric Horner (I don't think he has a website either).

Here are a few of their paintings. The first 2 are by Katrina Taylor.

What I like about them are the subtleties that are given so that you recognize them as landscapes; especially the first 2 and last paintings. That is something that I have been questioning myself. Do I want the viewer to read them dead on as landscapes? Or do I want to give them just enough information, so that it can be still be read as a landscape, just a little more obscure.

I think I am doing that somewhat, just not a ton. I don't render what I am putting in the scenes realistically. It's more of the mood and feeling of the landscape that I want to be evoked. (?)

New painting

This picture really isn't the best to show the colors, but it will have to do for now.

I started it today, so it was the first step of many. I'm not really in the mood to talk about it now. I will save that for tomorrow morning.

"Running silences the exterior noise, but provides a place where the interior noise can be heard. It is impossible to silence the interior noise; it must be heard."

-Roger Joslin

This quote was in a book that I read over break. I found it to be very true to my own running. It is the time when I am able to think most clearly and really ponder what it is I am doing and trying to say with my paintings.

A thought

When there are open fields it is easier for me to think, I feel more comfortable. It allows me to see more.

I like to see art that is based off of observations.

How people see something and their interpretation of it.

Not so much an idea or concept, but something that is actually there.

Physically. Like a landscape, a scene, a location.

It shows off their language and creativeness. It shows something that nothing else can (no other media).

You can't speak of a painting and it will appear.

Artist Wednesday

The artist I chose for this first Artist Wednesday is Keith Jacobshagen.

Taken from the book "Spirit of Place" by John Arthur...

The plein-air, premier-coup paintings of the back roads of Nebraska by Keith Jacobshagen are remarkable evocations of place and mood. These diminutive pieces are distinguished by their painterly explicitness, expansive scale, and deep affection for the land. Typically, there are notations across the bottom describing the weather and other particulars of the moment.

Jacobshagen has described the impulse behind his landscapes in a recent letter:

Something about the road paintings- they came about as a kind of way to go home- a formal epiphany of the journey. When I was a kid in the midwest it was a tradition to go for a Sunday drive. If the day was hot, then a country drive in the late afternoon to escape the heat of Wichita was a treat. I have fond memories of those warm late afternoons with their cool shadows stretching across gravel and dirt roads- sitting in the back seat of my father's Ford looking between my parent's heads at the road that seemed to move out, cutting through the wheat of grass fields. I think the space and thrust of those roads and how they defined the slight slope and flatness of the planes- the distance of things attracted me in an intuitive way.

It is the combination of the vast open skies and distance portrayed in his paintings that attract me to Keith Jacobshagen. Although he treats the paint differently than I do, it is this general feeling of the land that I try to capture. That feeling is one of expansiveness, of solitude.