Venice painting, completed underpainting
So far I have spent about 30 hours on this painting. Not that it is any indication of progress but people always seem to ask. I am now finished what I call the underpainting or the point where I am ready to really begin creating art . Call it the fog , drip or atmospheric process or my Turner/Monet/Pollock phase. This is where the painting will change dramatically, or not. As one friend commented, “controlled chaos”. Up to now it has been a technical excercise in getting paint on to the canvas. There is a randomness and an unknown component about this next phase. It is all about the feel of the paint as it hits the canvas. The painting may resemble Venice now, but it doesn’t “feel” like Venice or taste like Venice or smell like Venice. I recall going for a walk one early morning on a cloudy day, with the fog rolling in off the water. It was soupy green and grey, thick and heavy, luscious and deep. Taking in a breath the city became me.
detail of upper left part of canvas
detail of middle lower section
2 Comments
I love the fog, Gary, it’s very spontaneous feeling, I’ve never been to Venice so the Paintings of John Singer Sargent are my benchmark for how it feels. He used free form brush strokes sorta like this for his background lay-ins. It will be interesting to see where you take it, I love seeing it evolve…you can be totally free with no Salon to worry about as JSS did.
Each of these could really be a painting in itself, I just love your impressions. Thanks for sharing.