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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Decisions, Decisions...


Still not feeling up to it, still keeping at those little bozzettos.

I'm slacking from the one-bozzetto-a-day promise I made to myself, but hey - tough. Happens. When the spirit is low, the energy is not always available.

Plus, I'm now trying to decide on three pieces to enter to the upcoming show at one of the art organizations I belong to, the one whose
last year's annual show bestowed two awards upon me. Yeah, I know it's silly to expect a recurring success, but I am only human...

So, decisions, decisions... it's a juried show, and we can each submit up to three entries. Those who enter 3 pieces are guaranteed that at least one of them is accepted, so of course most people go for 3. My problem is not to come up with three - it's more to limit what I want to 3 only. I have 2 definite pieces, and I need to select one more out of a couple that I'd love to have in the show. Ah well, Monday is the deadline, so by Tuesday morning that will be behind me.

In the meantime - let me introduce you to Al.

Hard to tell what he is thinking of, what he is contemplating (maybe he, too, is trying to choose entries for a show), what plans run through his mind, almost materializing into action in the background that surrounds him.

I went for a drippy-spotty-splotchy kind of style that I am growing to like. The smooth Bristol paper on which I am working is showing every brush stroke, thus preventing me from doing perfect washes and forces texture - and I like it a lot.


Funny - on one hand I yearn to paint with those perfectly smooth washes, as I know a couple of painters who create magic with them. But whenever I myself resist the urge to texturize and go for those washes, they seem flat and boring to me, and I reach for anything that will ruin the perfection and bring some life into them.

Also, color-wise, I keep realizing that I work much better with limited palettes. At some point I dipped my brush in blue, and was amazed how much it all suddenly tied together and popped.

I'm learning a lot from these bozzettos - time to start utilizing all that wisdom on a bigger sheet of paper, eh?


7 comments:

Vicki Greene said...

I am really enjoying your lovely and unique style. I can just sit and look at your painting for quite a while and it is refreshing. Good luck on your show!

Anonymous said...

An engineer you say. Are you living in Silicon Valley?

How could you leave our profession to suffer as a painter?

And to further injure yourself you are using watercolor.

I hope you win every prize at that show - let us take a look at what you are entering.

Nava said...

Vicki, thanks. sitting and looking for a while - that's a compliment I cherish.

OnPainting, to your inquires: yup, Silicon Valley it is. And - what can I say, I guess I'm a masochist. Or maybe that is my punishment for sometin' I did in my precious life. Karma is a bitch.

Holly Van Hart said...

Nava, there's pure magic in the texture of this painting. it's infintely more interesting a 'flat' washes (a names which says it all). Holly

Anonymous said...

Nava - due to the passage of time without a new post you have moved way up in the slacker hierarchy.

Is there punishment for deeds in a previous life? I must have killed a schoolbus full of the little buggers.

Anonymous said...

Nava - how is that foot? My wife had plantar fasciitis a few weeks ago. Her foot would really swell. She took advil and used a frozen water bottle which she would roll back and forth with her foot each evening. It seems to have cleared up.

I found some old watercolors of mine. Now I've got the urge to paint something in watercolor but gave away all my supplies long ago.

http://www.onpainting.wordpress.com said...

I'm somewhat confused as I could have sworn that I went to a blog of yours that had later posts. Do you have another blog?

My feet hurt after my 10 mile walk yesterday. I used the frozen bottle treatment last night.