September 20, 2021 – Dappled Light, “Figures in a Landscape Study” Still Not Done, But, Already a Learning Tool For Me!

“Learning Tool for Me” is part of my blog title today simply ’cause I’ve looking at this post as specifically geared to get me where I wanna go – keeping in mind my destination is a generalized abstraction of image / feeling / and intuitive aspiration (hopefully including figurative work) & it’s reached a point of development over my previous renditions that I now need to put my resolve into concrete, hopefully creative, useful thoughts for my future directions. Lot of contradictions. Like life. Like me 😊 Here goes (for now) —

• It’s really hard to get white space over painted colors, in watercolor, and oils if not “very” dried, without resorting to options like white absorbent ground or light molding paste
• it’s really hard to soften “some” edges in work like Barton Springs Greenbelt poster on the right (for me, right now) without both being lucky, and being very very careful; I’d prefer something a bit more spontaneous
• Barton Springs Greenbelt poster, though closer to what I’d like for a dappled look, lacks the degree of warmth I prefer in my work. I could’ve added some warm blue, and even faint yellows, but wanted to keep this as a reminder of this look, some of which even onto now is still expressing itself
• Figure/landscape study as an art style is much more to my liking, though not fully what I’m searching for; a fuller resolution shot belies the over-softness seen above. But even so (and the adult figure is still in-progress), there’s still things this work is teaching me, esp about my use of line art (a more permanent pencil initial-sketch technique for me) – like the blending of washes of colors overlapping each other in differing degrees; it’s fascinating to play with!

• Could playing with masking fluid be a variation of the preceding thought?
• Still, all hard or all soft edges, in abundance, doesn’t appeal to me. Dappled light, like I see in nature, nearly always includes both soft and hard(er) edges
• Could these ideas lead me to a side-return (since the 80s) of painting abstracts to release pent-up pigment-ideas needing real paint to push around to get an idea to fully emerge?

So yes, very definitely, this post is dense with implications for my art, including to two of my fairly recent (even if infrequent) fully abstract pieces, two of which are below –

Ridges of Spring Light on the left didn’t have masking liquid, but The Earth is a Garden on the right did.

Both achieved cut-outs of light, leaving the gap in Ridges of Spring Light bare – which I left as is; while I lightly painted in the intricate pattern I’d masked out throughout The Earth is a Garden. The (apparent) light violet figure on the left emerged totally unintentionally!

My Barton Springs Greenbelt poster upper top right had extensive masking, while Figure/Landscape study didn’t have any – there’s something possible for me inbetween there that would satisfy what I’m looking for visually, ie, emotionally; ideally with ideation, ie, giving rise to a contemplation of thoughts or ideas, which, even more ideally, would be grounded in feelings, particularly aspirational feelings ❤️

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All in all, a lot for me to think and dream about, lol!

Sometimes, that’s not only the best one can do at one time, but probably a very necessary step going forward 🙏 I hope 😊

Stay well everyone! Have fun with your art – no matter how aggravating, lol! ☺️

Adan

ps – see Dianne Mize’s short video (see Tweet & link below it) for one of the better tutorials & explorations of what she refers to as “dappled shade” 🎨 and yes, I should probably re-watch it myself, lol!

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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