Since April of this year, I've been working on my "Jury is Out" series. As the garden fades and the leaves turn colour, it's time to wind up this project and see what it's meant. My goal was to try to loosen and extend my own style by emulating the styles of some of the artists I admire.
It should have been totally fun – and it had its moments. But sometimes the planning stage was filled with roadblocks, and my sketchbook shows evidence of false starts and scrawled exasperations. Now…I look off into space and consider the verdict.
A few times, working on my 24" x 18" canvas, I've wondered if paradoxically it would be easier to work on a very large scale – as does one of my heroes Alex Katz.
What do you think?
At other times, I've noted to myself that many of my subject artists work in oil, rather than my chosen medium, acrylic – and they handle differently with different results.
In one of my exasperated moments, when I painted out and started over, I had to ask myself if I've improved at all over the past few years. A case of "the hurrier I go, the behinder I get"? (Read here to learn that this wisdom did not originate with Lewis Carroll or Alice or the White Rabbit – or anyone else you might name).
So what am I going to do next? Some of my "Jury" experiments I've been satisfied with, but some are kinda blah in the long run. (Okay – go ahead and say it: At age 70-plus, there's not necessarily such a long run ahead).
These musings led me to think about the aspects of art that have always delighted me. Surely I'm better off just pressing ahead in my own way, rather than trying to develop skills in areas – like realistic portraiture – that aren't my thing.
So here's a quick recap of old and enduring loves, back to high school days; things that I still find nourishing. Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon…" Those many and varied figures, each so satisfying, perfectly ordered; somehow the whole both compelling and peaceful.
Tiffany lampshades (thank you, friends A and J for guiding me to the phenomenal collection of the New York Historical Society). The panes of gorgeous rich colours, firmly outlined – which gave me a taste for pattern, too, and a susceptibility to things like Persian tiles and Roman mosaics.
Rouault's "The Old King" I discovered Rouault at university and splurged on a poster for my dorm room. Can't beat those intense and strongly defined colours -- and the expressive pose of the figure.
In recent years I've taken note of the weirdness and wit of the Surrealists, like Georges de Chirico....
… and the vividly defined colours of Ferdinand Hodler.
And oh, so many more. When I think of my paintings of the past 4-5 years, perhaps the one I still like best is "Botanical Artist" – combining as it does those long-held preferences for the figure, for pattern, for a bit of whimsy, and for carefully delineated saturated colour.
Moving ahead, I want to embrace the things that work for me and that give me satisfaction – and fun – in the creation.
As I look around the garden at the hints of renewal that autumn prepares for spring, I'll let Georgia O'Keeffe deliver the verdict.
"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."
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