A294 Peripheral Revision

A294 Peripheral Revision
24x18" oil on canvas
Private collection

May 10, 2003: I slipped away to work on the sketch under-painting for the new canvas, A294. After a conversation with Linda about the burdens we carry around and the things from our past that keep pecking at us, I wanted a character sort of wrestling with a raven, the burden of ideas or philosophies that refuse to leave us alone. So back to Paynes grey, flesh and a new turquoise, with Alizarin crimson for the red, I think.

May 16, 2003: A slow but productive day. Still feeling sluggish and swollen. I cleaned the studio and the office, and made a great deal of progress on A294, Peripheral Revision. At first I did not like the heavy texture of the linen canvas, but before long I was enjoying the way the brush scrubs on it, and the paint gathers in the pits and ridges. The face of the creature is passive, veins and eyes bulging as she tries to catch a raven...or is she batting him away?

June 17, 2003: After a light lunch, I worked in the studio for a couple of hours, on A294. Everything is falling into place now, the feathers filling in nicely, and the pattern on the characters shirt.

After resting for a while, I worked again on A294, finishing up the feathers and painting in the modelling on the right side arm. This painting is going very quickly now. I am enjoying the heavy texture of the linen canvas, finding that dry brush techniques and glazing work wonderfully. It is a different feel, certainly. And my graphic lines look different.

On this painting, I am also trying a new colour, turquoise. Of course, flesh combined with Pthalo blue also makes turquoise, so there is a nice blending of tones there. The Alizarin-patterned fabric, floating above the skin of the character and drifting over the edges of the canvas, adds delicacy and beauty to an otherwise slightly disturbing image, the dark feathers, the odd way the character is intermixed with the bird, and the weary expression and attitude of the character.

What is happening here? The character writes or draws, allowing the raven to pass through her. She accepts the dark flutter, embraces it, her gaze focused on the pure white of the paper. The teacup emerges from a spin of turquoise that flows into or out of a cephalopod.

Anomaly Series