Painting Process Round 1 and Round 2 : (W)Holons

The big fun painting project begins and you are coming along for the ride! 

I haven't worked this large in years and it was one of my goals this year. The hardest part of painting is beginning. What will you paint? I've been aching to make some pictures of the village in the NorthEast Kingdom and have done a bunch of sketches over the past year or so. I know there are mountains and that the village is in a valley. I began with a little bit of sketching (thumbnail) in scale to the canvas I'd be using. I used 5" square sketches. Working with color and pattern is a given for me. The bigger challenge with canvases this size is composition. 

I got two 20" square canvases, dumped a load of painted, orizomegami, map and book papers on the floor of my studio (Thank you, Susan, for the rug.) I sat down in the middle of this chaos with my gel medium and a big brush and began ripping and tearing and gluing: playing with placement, pattern and dark and light areas.

Round No 1: (There is a piece of orizomegami paper that I've been hoarding for awhile in the middle of the first painting - the red and green piece.)

Round No 2: I wanted to set up some dark and light areas as well as the underlying patterns. I REALLY REALLY wanted to pull out the paints but resisted the temptation. Structure and darks and lights first. 

The first observation that I have on working this large is that the craft of creating a larger painting is ... well, it's bigger. It's more craft and patience. I am really intent on observing this process and relearning it. In the process, I will share what I'm learning with you folks. So a very basic composition has been established here but more is needed. Next question is where will the village houses go? I'm really diggin' the stripe-y-ness and it needs to be interrupted and some excitement will need to be set up.

So I'll be doing some staring and thinking and play with more elements of collage within this composition next. More soon ...