Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Daily Painting Practice - Completed Northwoods Paintings

Well I'm back! Just completed the Northwoods series..(is it really a series with only 2 1/2 paintings?) I think both benefited from the color studies I did on site in Wisconsin. What do you think? I am very pleased with both of them because I really went after the light and I think I got it.

click on the painting to enlarge the image
The Bridge
"haven't got a title yet"
24"x18"
oil on masonite panel

click on the painting to enlarge the image

The Swing
"no title yet for this one either"
18"x24"
oil on masonite panel


You might be wondering why I have been so absent from the blogging scene. Well the reason is, I have been on a little quest. I have been very busy soul searching. That is, searching for the soul of my work. ..(does that make sense?) The daily paintings I was turning out began to feel very empty. So I stopped. I needed to examine what was missing. During this break from the daily paintings I have been reading a lot of art books and magazines and a few biographies of artists...( my favorite so far Andrew Wyeth A Secret Life by Richard Meryman). What I admire more about Wyeth after reading the book is his devotion to striving, to trying to connect the dots. His struggle to be his own interpreter of what he feels he must paint. ( strange man but a great artist)

I have also been reaching for a better way to interpret what I feel and what I see. You know the feeling when you do paintings which don't hold your attention longer than a TV commercial? Lately, this really bothers me... This is either a sign of age or a sign I need to change my approach to my art.

This change may not make a whole lot of sense in words but I hope that my new approach will be seen in the work. Of course, I will bring you the results in the blog as I stumble down this new path... Stumbling, that 's a sign of age too!

12 comments:

Stacey Peterson said...

Hi Peter - it's great to see you back!! I've missed your daily posts, but I understand where you're coming from - it's why I've never committed to the whole daily painting thing - I wanted the freedom to work on what I wanted to work on, whenever.

Love these paintings - especially the top one. I love how the trees recede into the distance behind the shadowed ones in the front! Nice work =)

Sheila Vaughan said...

Peter, it's good to see you back here. I can understand well what has kept you away (apart from those two wonderful light filled paintings - yes you did catch it and well!). I think all of us are striving to find our true "voice" in terms of painting. I read somewhere that the problem is that we can create in our heads the perfect painting, it might be prompted by an idea or by something we actually see. But by the time we have picked up a brush and dipped it in paint and moved our arm to the surface a small gap has been created between the vision and the execution. We need all the time to strive to minimise that gap. But sooo difficult !!! Thanks for the Wyeth reference. I know so little about him but am interested to find out more.

Anonymous said...

Peter, Peter, Peter--how I have missed seeing your little jewels posted--but now I see you have been off mining some even larger and more precious gems. These are real beauties!! It can almost hurt sometimes to think that there is so much beauty in the world and we are so limited by either time or talent in trying to capture it on canvas--non-artists might have a problem relating to how the "need" to paint captures our daily lives. So glad to see you back. Ginger J

belindadelpesco.com said...

Oh Peter, these are just wonderful! I *love* the water in the foreground of the bridge piece, and my eye (and imagination) goes straight for the seat of the swing on the second piece. Beautiful sense of place in each of them. I am also reading Meryman's Secret Life about Wyeth, and I'm stunned by the book. I so love the way he relays the inescapable tangle between the artist and the artists' life & history. Incredible book.
Glad to see your post today. Welcome back.

Mary J DuVal said...

Peter, I read many blogs here and there but you are among my select few favorites and it is because of your honesty and willingness to show your vulnerabilities that I continue to look forward to this blog.(Your sense of humor too!)Thank you for letting us be a part of this journey with you. I will look forward to it and to seeing your beautiful paintings.

Peggy Montano & Paintings said...

I am glad to see you back. I check your blog often to see if you are posting.
The Bridge painting is fantastic!

Miki Willa said...

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about wanting to look into the soul of your painting. After doing a painting a day for almost a year, I found that I wanted to stretch myself to do bigger and better things. I am very much enjoying the journey.

Marilyn M. King said...

I was reading an article today found in the April/May 2000 issue of International Artist Magazine entitled "The Authorship Of Painting". C W Mundy the great oil painter I've long admired says "finding your voice allows you to get past the formulaic approaches and techniques to reveal how you feel, adding unsurpassed dept to your paintings". The article is about getting beyond holding technique as the goal and allowing it to become the means to the goal. As we embark on the journey of finding out who we are as artists we find that it is a spiritual one as well as an artistic one. They are one in the same. That article earlier today really has turned my thinking about my work and then I read your blog! Thanks, for sharing and I will look in often. It's good to see your work again and the two paintings are awesome.

Cheryl Pass said...

Been checking and now I see what you have wrought....I love the Bridge scene..the water is so inviting and the light in that one really takes the viewer there. I would not ever get tired of looking at that piece. So, referring your analogy of longer than a television ad, you definitely accomplished your goal. I do think we all go through this searching in various degrees, to regroup, absorb, and redirect. Your work is beautiful, Peter.
My best,
Cheryl

Anonymous said...

Good to know you have not stopped painting. I do understand the need to connect with your work. Two very beautiful and unique pieces.

Jean Victory said...

Beautiful paintings! Incredible how you've captured the light.

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

WOW! That bridge is just unbelievably beautiful.