Behind women's eyes X - step II... Looking for gut-wrenching beauty!

At every exhibition, I always seem to have at least one painting that sends people in the opposite direction. This could be the one...

... at any rate, I wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with this character! Another subtle pass should do it for me.

In terms of artistic direction... I have a feeling I'm finally branching out! I seem to be in a position to optimize my painting process without fundamentally changing it, finally giving way to pure expression as opposed to technique.

Behind women's eyes X ... Time to seize the moment!

Lately, I've been alternating frantically with different supports (canvases) and techniques with the hope of finding a creative path that's totally me in 2011. As I mentioned before, 2010 was a good year to make further inroads in the areas of color and textures with acrylics. Some of my recent experiments pointed to potentially creative avenues for me, others validated certain techniques and philosophies that I've adhered to thus far. After these creative perturbations, it's time to release to a higher order:

• I want visceral contemporary art, not solely illustrative or decorative art. 
• I want deconstruction in my images, the type associated with the expression of fragments of memory. 
• I want textures, unusual textures and more variety in them.
• More than anything else, I want freedom in my execution!

I'm starting the next painting with this "modus operandi" in mind...

 ....  want this one to be the sum total of everything that I've learned so far.

Note: The previous painting suggested a potential return to a more conservative approach, negating the lessons learned from my recent experiments. This was a strong prompter to reassess what I really wanted from my art...

Note to self: "Once the mind stretches, it doesn't go back to its original form."

Jaguar woman I final... Went through this one like a steam roller!

After having worked on a larger scale for a while, I found working on this composition a little more tedious...

  ... even though the smallest brush I used for details was a flat beveled half inch one. Until the end of the year, I'll be looking for scrap reference materials... to keep painting... simply because there are some brushes and paint around... and because there is always the prospect of a happy accident!

Note: I'm slowly firming up my ideas with regard to how I will approach my next "Smoke and mirrors" painting theme ...

Jaguar woman I - close to final... Trying to stick with the program!

Still pressed with time today, I invested another hour on this canvas...

 Because of my favouring staining colors for transparency... all of a sudden, the advantages of raw canvas become quite obvious as I spread colors on this gessoed canvas. An interesting key learning for me... that I will put to good use in my future works. Also my experience with cotton/linen (light grey) canvases has been an eye opener... I don't need to use black and white to attenuate transparent colors as I did last year. I may come back to attenuated colors in my future series to create more drama...

Note: I made a special effort with this one to mix more colors directly on canvas...

Jaguar woman I - step II... The title and the painting: the tail of the dog is wagging the dog!

I like to play with words, and I found out recently that many of my "supposedly creative" expressions are already featured in the English urban dictionary. Case in point, a jaguar is defined, to my surprise, as a 50+ year old woman who likes to go after much younger men (in essence, the next level after a cougar!). Cumulative plastic surgeries often give these women slanted eyes, hence the appellation "jaguar". Well, I'll be damned... may as well follow suit with this painting...

 I barely had an hour today to define the character of the woman a little further... and I decided to go for a feline/oriental look, which I may attenuate a little. In parallel to that, I tried to figure out the background while thinking about my next moves and corrections at the third and final pass. I'm not doing any pirouettes regarding textures with this one.

Note: I don't have the guts to make a statement about these women "à la Otto Dix" (could have done that based on my 1st step!).... so she will get progressively prettier and softer!"

Note to self: "Ever since I dreamed about a jaguar last summer, I've been haunted by the idea of doing something with this theme... it's now of never! I also want to include multiple meanings and ambiguity in my paintings in the future. This will go in line with my "smoke and mirror" umbrella theme for 2011."

Jaguar woman I - step I... Applying lessons learned from one support to the other!

These days, I'm looking around for any piece of left over canvas that I can use to experiment further. My intent is to fiddle around until January 2011, before starting any new series. Although my basic painting techniques haven't change much over the last few years, in 2010, I dedicated more time to the exploration of colors and textures. The use of raw canvas recently has led me to mix more paint directly on canvas (somehow it felt more comfortable). With this experiment, I want to see the impact of this newly acquired behaviour on regular gessoed canvas...

The jaguar theme came about last summer during a dream, but I followed suit with only one painting to date, and rather timidly. This time around I want to go "animal"!

Note: I'm not sure how much will be left from the background when I'm finished... but is was fun to let go with this first pass!

Behind women's eyes IX final... Seeking receding black holes on canvas!

In final analysis, I decided to go for a conservative "coloration" approach for my first black and white rendition of the human figure...

 I leveraged the black and grey underpainting the best I could using transparent color layers along with textured passages. I shied away from a more overt partial coloration... and don't mind the potentially visceral contemporary look that this technique can impart to some of my future works.

Note: Pure black is avoided by purists, but my experience with Chinese black ink has given me an appreciation for it. In my view, pure black is a "dead" color that literally creates space through the canvas and beyond, not unlike black holes in the universe, the imagination helping! Conversely, color passages come forward, as if gushing out!

Based on my previous experiments, I see two key artistic opportunities for me in 2011:

• The use a black and grey underpainting before the application of color
• Opposing abstract patterns to figuration: either normal paint over metallic paint, normal paint throughout, or metallic paint over normal paint