May you live in interesting times. — alleged Chinese proverb
2020 was a crazy awful year. While the twenty-first century has come of age and is now legally allowed to drink, it’s as if 2021 is suffering a massive hangover from 2020. Covid is still rampaging, a lot of us are stuck in our homes, and the US election is throwing up some “interesting” events.
I started a painting the other day, a self-portrait based on a Zoom photo. I’ m staring off to the side and I realized it’s a wondering expression. The fact is we can take all the action we want but at a certain point you we have to sit back and wonder what happens next.
A work in progress! I wonder what I’ll do next?
Over the holidays I was wondering a lot. Memories of family and friends, get togethers, big meals— good and bad— were swimming around my head. At the moment I plan to create a background to the self-portrait that contains hints of those memories. Or I might just cover them all up. Still wondering.
For me oil paintings take a lot longer than watercolors. With watercolors everything happens quicker, and while there is some leeway for adding and subtracting, you have to commit to a look and develop it. With oils you can endlessly tweak and chop and change. Titian would put a painting aside for six months then start tweaking again.
Don’t you wish you could do that with reality?
This is the courtyard at the Louvre, a pleasant place to stroll on a nice day. The original is available for $210.
You can when you paint. As a painter you are taking a long look at the world, and going through a process of assessment and interpretation. You can also look inward to your own memories and knowledge and imagination.
Painting as a mode of self-expression is a great comfort to me, especially when the world is going mad. I am taking from reality and my head and creating something new.
Happy New Year everyone. Things are getting better, I promise.