Femme de feu I final ... First timid steps towards a new pictorial language!

 I finished this one yesterday with a few of "hit or miss" passes, trying to achieve an acceptable balance in my view...

 

To accomplish what I want to accomplish with this new technique incorporating calligraphic mark making, I need to lay the artwork flat on the floor at least at the initial stage. In this case, I proceeded as usual on my easel, hence the extensive vertical dripping which I tried to leverage by hook or crook in the final design.

Note to self: "I'm getting bored with pure realism... and would like to introduce some chaos in the natural order of things!"

Femme de feu I - step III... Jumping off a cliff hoping to catch a thermal!

As I initiated a third pass, I realized quickly that I was about to go back to my comfort zone, reproducing more or less the kind of work that I usually produced when remaining relatively under control. Deep down, I'm still vying for total freedom. On the spur of the moment, I decided to throw a monkey wrench into the picture...

I've been toying with this kind of paint application for quite a while but never really had the guts to implement it. I'm back to not destroying too much what resulted from a spurt of spontaneity!

Note to self: "I'm looking for my own iconographic language for fire..."

Femme de feu I - Step II... Trying not to lose too much canvas!

A last kick at the can before Christmas...

I slapped another staining coat in preparation for the final pass. I plan to jazz up colors a bit when applying the thicker stuff!

Time to join my guest for the evening, my 100 year old mother-in-law!

Femme de feu I - step I... Firming up my ideas about a new series!

I took an hour or so this afternoon to lay the foundation for the first painting of my "Private Eyes" series. However, a new idea for a series emerged as I thought about potential solutions for this one....

As a result, "Femmes de Feu" (women of fire) will probably replace "Private Eyes" as my upcoming series. We'll see how this one evolves... since most of the time, my paintings have a life of their own! This is a 28 X 28 canvas...

Note: I realized this week that the kind of raw cotton/linen that I'm using may go the way of the dodo bird sooner than later: the supplier discontinued the product recently. I placed an order for 50 meters which should last me 4-5 years! In the interim, I'll be looking for alternative ways to reproduce similar results... too bad I'm addicted to the stuff!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my family, friends and visitors of this blog a happy Holiday Season. We look forward to spending some quality time with family and friends.

As grand parents, we are lucky to have the prerogative to see Christmas through the eyes of our grand children... and we are ready to handle the task at hand!

P.S. I've got a piece of canvas ready to start a new series... so I will attempt to cast the die before the New Year... sort of a "breaking the ice" exercise!

New series 2012... gearing up!

Not much painting this week, and mostly thinking a lot about what I'm gonna do next. On Friday, I was lucky enough to have Val  (a friend of the Muse) for a photo session in preparation for my 2012 production...

I used a different tactic this time and relied also on video to capture movement. Lately, I've been interested in going the route of raw Belgium linen for my support... so it's with great excitement that I will initiate my new series in 2012!

Update: The price of Belgium linen is a killer (10 times the price of cotton/linen)... but at least I got a yard... as a Christmas gift to myself!

Bather II final... Getting at the end of the roll... my canvas roll that is!

I still have one piece of raw cotton/linen left after this one... and this will mark the end of my "painting vacation", i.e., painting "no brainer" paintings! I'd like to start some serious work next week. I've got two main series in mind:

• "Vortex", a series of large scale semi-abstract faces and bodies with a spin
• "Private eyes", a series of large scale faces emphasizing the eyes and leveraging unusual viewing angles

I finished this one in a hurry this afternoon, with the sole purpose of accumulating time on raw cotton/linen before getting real serious with my new series...

Note to self: "After all, total freedom may not be incompatible with total figuration..."