Snapshot of work in progress.
So the mandarins have left behind the clock and the vodka and are now commanding their own solo investigation, as you can see in this snapshot. Very sketchy, I know, but I tend to get happy with “sketchy” so we’ll see if anything more happens with this study. In the meantime, though, I’m developing a similar sketch further with some blocks of color. Of note, this sketch is on a 20-by-10-inch canvas and is entirely acrylic applied with a brush; the pastel has dropped out again.
The clock and the vodka are hanging on, meanwhile, in some new sketches as their own line of inquiry evolves. Some striped wallpaper and a table may be appearing.
I’m spending a lot of studio time looking and thinking right now. I’m pursuing several of the same lines that I was before Art Tours (and, indeed, for years in some cases), but I’m really taking it slow. It’s time to stop stumbling down the same path and instead consider whether that path is leading me where I want to go, or if I now have the tools to sharpen my navigation and better visualize a route to a new destination.
I’m certainly spending much more time with this still-life subject than has been my habit in the past. I’m really boring in, determined to find the connection of my impulse to render still-lifes to my personal vision and preferred methods of working. Thus the repeated pots of mandarins and extended meditations! It helps, though, to be doing some abstracts at the same time. Having several items on the burner keeps everything moving along, with less chance of feeling stuck.
The truth is, I’m super happy to be back to work and may not be taking part in shows for a while. Don’t want the distraction or the sense of a deadline. Got plenty enough percolating right here in the studio.
Magicgroove: In the Studio 