Friday, December 30, 2016

Canvas or Panel?

A friend asked the other day which I prefer painting on, canvas or panel.  I have been painting on larger canvases as of late but I do hate the sound of the canvas if I am constantly dabbing on an area.  Painting outdoors it is better to work on a panel as the light will not go through the back of the canvas if I am painting into the sun.  The stiffness of panel also I like painting against.  Sometimes the give of a canvas id too much.  That said canvas has its own properties that I like as well.  Much lighter when painting large is nice.  Haling around big panels can be tough.  Another option that I have tried and like is to glue the canvas or linen to a board.  This world well and you can get the texture of the linen as well as taking care of the problems with canvas that I have mentioned.  If a sharp object pokes the canvas you have something behind to protect it as well.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

the end and the beginning

        With the end of a year and a new one upon us I thought I might try and start to try and be a little more consistent with entries. I like many artists prefer to paint rather than write about the act of painting.  I think  this time of year one thinks about childhood.  Giving gifts to my children I naturally think about my own childhood.  There is something of a longing in most good paintings that I have seen.  A Rothko painting makes me long for communication with the spirit; my own or in another realm.  I have memories of driving in the English landscape to get a christmas tree.  I remember seeing a group of trees in a field with fields and trees receding into the frozen landscape and liking what I saw.  it is a clear memory I'm sure tampered with by time but I remember taking a mental note as if to my adult self my seven year old self stored valuable information.  I would awake in America having dreamed that I was in the English countryside.  Nothing ever really helped with the feeling of home sickness.  I am home with my family and the people are what matter now but the places that imprinted on my brain then.  The rural beauty and the field desolate unused until the spring seemed to be telling my little self something.  "This is what time is.  Things will come and go.  Life and death, cold weather and warm weather, sadness and joy, they all need one another and ad to the richness of life. As the year closes and another begins there is hope.