House Plant 3

'House Plant, 3', 4 drafts, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, oils.

Not to be undone by black, I begin again. A lighter black wash, and quickly brushing the main forms out of it.

                              

The House Plant 2

The House Plant, 2, 4th draft, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, oils.

Where it ended up. Dark, gloomy. It's the black. Most artists don't use it at all. It's very hard to work with. Oh, ok as an outline or as some clothing or a hair colour or to efface a section... but if I start with a black background rather than white I always run into problems. Even though coming from nothing, arising out of the blackness, works for me metaphorically, in paint... it's been most challenging. I had hoped my relation to black had changed and so I began optimistically with a black background (brushed, not fully opague), but it hasn't changed.

The black beneath the colour sucks all the brightness in, leaving a dark, greyish, gloomy surface. I admit I did not use another underlayer of a lighter colour but painted sap green right on the black, which was absorbed immediately. You could only see it in good light.

Last night, in very dim light, I dry brushed some magenta and white onto the painting. I also drew the outlines of the leaves in a permanent acrylic ink, bringing the plant back to recognizable. Not sure why I do that either, but it is part of my process, negotiating with the patterns of the concrete, actual world of recognizable forms.

Magically, and there was a lot of oil paint on it, it is dry enough to turn the page of my Moleskine sketchbook and continue on. I may again start with a black background, because I am challenged.

                              

'A House Plant': Two Days, Two Different Moods

From my Moleskine project: the house plant on my dining room table, yesterday's painting, and today's. Two very different renditions.

Yesterday's painting of the house plant on my dining room table. Colour is still not quite right.

Today's painting of the house plant on my dining room table. Acrylic bone black base.

2nd Draft. Oil paints, then scratched over. I wiped it off.

3rd Draft today. Where I left it. I took the photo in daylight shade; it's darker than this in the Moleskine.

The first and last are in my Moleskine sketchbook - the three middle ones were on the way to the last one, to the left, which is likely finished.

The painting is dark and depressing, it disappears in the shadows, but in the light isn't too bad. A matte fixative will decrease the shine in it, too.