Q: How do you start a painting? How do you come up with ideas? Do you know what you want from the start? Do you ever mess up? How do you know when you're done?
A: It's complicated...
The most common questions I get from viewers, fans and art-admirers alike deal with the process of painting and how I translate my ideas into images on a canvas. Despite the plethora of examples, thousands of hours in the studio and hundreds of unique artworks completed, the only honest answer is, "It's complicated...and no painting goes the same even after 600+"
For example, I started the most recent painting simply thinking "blue" and "a central figure"...and from that basic starting point we dive in...
That "blue" I mentioned made an early splash...
Although you'll see him quickly disappear, the central figure DID make an appearance early on.
With a fluffy white collar on, no less. Dressed to impress for his brief appearance.
Do I mess up? Yes...a lot, but that's OK (one person's mistake is another's "part of the process")...sometimes I'll paint, repaint and paint-over sections of canvas up to five times before really getting a feel for the direction of a piece...
Sometimes you need to put down a mark to realize you don't like it...
There were clearly not enough legs on this canvas.
This is the face of an artist who just realized he doesn't like much of what he spent the last three hours doing...
And that's where that "repainting" comes in...
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It is always interesting to me how a simple, if large, change can completely define and establish a piece. I dabbled for hours getting the piece up to this point...and after five minutes painting over 50% of it with yellow, I knew where to go.
That foot was cold...it needed a sock.
A wild painting in its natural habitat.
The process really slows once the big colors and objects have been placed...a lot of looking...a lot of pacing...a lot of thinking...a lot of small details with big impact...a lot of playing with cats.
And you always have to keep an eye on the texture...
Six hours later, you have a new painting...and days after that, you might finally get to stop thinking about it. There's always SOMETHING you find to fix in a recent piece...and simply letting it go can be difficult. How do I know when a painting's done? When I step back and like what I see...if even for a moment.
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