Little Steps Poster ©Felipe Adan Lerma
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A Path Forward, watercolor on absorbent ground
This one, A Path Forward, is more a ”mess” than Fall Color 1 watercolor, done about 5 days ago, lol! But I do like it! 😊

It’s a very loosely “translated”, as Diane Mize describes it in Translating, Transposing and Inventing: That’s What Artists Do! – meaning my Mountain Road photo reference below provided a loose non-realistic reference point.

And there was a point, decades ago, I finally realized I had this tug-a-war going on within me : translate an image to paint (realistically faithful to the photo or plein air scene), or go abstract, usually way abstract 😊

Diane, in her article above, describes the transposing range as mild to severe, and my ranged the gamut, with a few totally “invented” images along the way – here, and here are good examples from the 80s ☺️

In the 2000s I opted for an impressionist version of transposing, both to give my work continuity, and to please myself, as I’d determined that form of art was my favorite, and still today is strongly placed in my heart ❤️ The works I sold at a Veterans Art show being good examples.

What I think I’ve come to now, twenty years after my 1st impressionist attempts, and thirty to forty years after my various acrylic works in Galveston, is, with the small pieces I’ve been working on since late last year, watercolors on absorbent ground, most on 6x6s canvases, is a possibly satisfying rotation between figurative white line work (a mix of translating and transposing) on black absorbent ground, and work a bit closer to a mix of transposing and inventing, with work like A Path Forward below, and Fall Color 1 Watercolor a few days back.

And I think the figurative work on transparent absorbent ground over black gesso probably fits into that latter category too, and I’ll be doing more like that very soon.

And somewhere in all that flowers will also appear time to time 💐

My original photo, you can tell, is a beauty of happy timing all in itself. Plus from one of my favorite places to visit (hopefully again some day 😊) – Stowe, Vermont.

I’d digitally faded the edges, I think with some sort of “vintage” filter, and decided I very much liked the idea for the painting also, tried it, and think it works pretty nicely!

I like the softening almost nostalgic effect it gives the art!

Tomorrow I should be able to post my 3rd in a row similar to The Path Forward and Fall Color 1, a painting I worked on today, but am unsure if it’s totally done. Like the painting in this post, it’s “translated” from an image, this one being a photo from when Sheila and I spent 5 1/2 weeks in Paris back in late 2020 💕 I’m calling it, A Walk in Paris With a View of the Eiffel Tower.

While The Path Forward reminds me of the fauvists (particularly Matisse and Derain), the Paris work reminds me of Utrillo, esp his Eiffel Tower painting (at bottom of linked to page).

Not exactly of course. And not intentionally, or consciously.

I just painted, the two images (The Path Forward), and today’s Paris Walk (hope to post tomorrow), and when done, that’s what they reminded me of. Interesting, I think, how intimately we are connected to all the art before us! We absorb it, and it mixes inside us, often times unaware when or how it’ll manifest!

There’s one last detail about The Path Forward I thought interesting I wanted to share.

The white circled dark dash just right of mid center in the painting, was the last thing I placed and convinced me the work was finished; other than actually also signing it 😊

Somehow, the work felt too – I haven’t been able to find quite the right word – but like the colors and shapes were too suspended, and my “looking” at it was anchored. I studied the original photo, and saw there was a shadow that continued under (in the photo) the highlight in the path/road into the distance.

Once I set the dash, the whole painting came into focus for me. Weird, huh?

But it felt right. So I “declared” it done, lol 😊

Take care everyone! Stay well, stay safe!
Transform, mutate, create what is in you! ❤️

Adan

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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