Vanitas II

Still Life setup -- Vanitas II

Vanitas II
 January 26, 2010

Because of the somber subject and because I like to imagine that I’m adding color to a bas relief sculpture carved in gray stone when I paint, I’ve chosen to do an under-painting in grisaille (grizz-a) or gray tones.  After I did the drawing, directly on the paper, I covered the entire surface with a light wash of Burnt Sienna and let the wash  dry before I started painting in the gray which was the GBB I made a few weeks ago.  

The 3 photos under the photo if the setup show the 1st 3 stages.

So far, I’m pleased with the results. 

********

I added color to the background.  The washes were thin.  In the part with the most light, I used UB and a tad of BS.  In the first wash I went around all the tiny white squares.  On the 3rd, most colorful wash, I filled in the brightest blue boxes only.  For the postcard, I used GBB, UB and Burnt Sienna.  As per the postcard, I darkened the lower and upper lh corners and worked into the light on the other side.
In the final session before going off to do other things,  I filled in the lightest areas of the peaches with alternating combos of CR and CY.  It all looks very colorful at this stage but the washes were quite thin, light....  I also smoothed down some of the shadow areas.  The peach next to the skull is the farthest down I’ve worked on this painting.  I’m trying to work from the darkest area to the lightest as well as work with thin washes of meaning, either tone or hue.

End of the morning, stage 5

********

Friday, Jan 29, '10

 

end session 6

I added more color + tone to the blue squares, deepened the shadows in the background fabric.  I also deepened a lot more of the shadows with GGB + UB & BS.  The last thing I did was the green leaf in the foreground..  I spent about an hour; it was a good painting session. 

********

 

Sunday morning Jan 31

Sunday afternoon, Jan 31

Desaturated version, Sunday afternoon...

 

Feb 1, '10

Desaturated version, Feb 1, '10

I spent a few hours on this painting yesterday morning and this morning, Mon., Feb 1, ‘10.    Something I was thinking about while working is that I didn’t have much to say about where I went with the painting and with what.  Etc.  Then I thought that ‘s what painting is about, for me.  Start out with a plan and see where it goes.  Stick to the plan, give it up to the Universe,  allow/will the Universe to take over, leaving me free to go with it, to fly by the seat of my pants, to listen to my being, allow my hand to be guided, let my heart-sense over-ride my head-sense....

Another thing; Squinting.   Viewing the flat surface with only one eye gives me a singular perception, like looking at something through  binoculars.   And another; remembering that a painting is an arrangement of pigment on a flat surface, that squinting – working with one eye only – the sensation of flatness transformed into depth, the sense of contrast and color making eye-candy, lighting up my senses, brightening my eye, heightening my understanding,  making a new world with every new touch of color or tone with every new brushstroke, every new step.....  

True to my original plan, I’ve stuck with GGBlack instead of mixing a specific black/dark for this painting.  When I need Dark, I use GGB,  many times with a mix of UB or CY added for lighter, darker....  The final figures for this black are not yet in.  I kind of like it/am not crazy about it.  

Time will tell.

******** late Monday evening....

 

 

After a few hours work, Vallentine's Day

 

Desaturated

Feb  14, '10

I tore down the setup and put everything away.  I thought to put the painting away, too but as I was removing the tape from the edges, looking at the painting, I saw things I could do to make it better.  I've spent a peaceful Sunday morning finishing it off, mostly with glazes of tone and variations of tone or by adding pure color -- all glazes as if varnish.  For now, I'm calling this painting finis.  I'm planning on starting a new Vanitas, another horizontal composition, one to go with this painting.

Culvert St Series 8

 I enjoyed the possibilities for tree limbs and branches from the study I did earlier so decided to do another scene from the dining room window for my Culvert St series.

After the liquid frisket dried, I wet down the entire sky area and floated in a tint of CY and a tint of AC from the rooftop area to the top of the paper.  The paper was very wet; I’d put down the water so the paper was highly saturated and the tint seemed to be floating above the paper.  I started adding the blue from the top of the paper.  Shown here is the result of two thin layers of color followed by a thicker layer of blue in the upper left hand corner.

I’ve deepened tone and increased intensity mostly by using GBB or UB and BS, sometimes BU.  I also noticed that I’d forgotten to add a panel under the eaves on the porch roof.  In general, I fussed more with detail, made changes, built up tone and colored light.  I like the tree branch and I’m happy with the gable on the mid-ground house.  It’ll be interesting to see how this painting looks with the tree finished and a few other things like the bushes and the bit of grass that’s showing in the bottom left hand corner.

I wasn’t happy with the blue of the sky so I glazed it with UB particularly in the upper left hand corner.  I also added many accents throughout the painting using UB.  I used UB and CO on the part of the street that isn’t covered with shadow which was a great mix to get a kind of dull shine.  I made an attempt to fix the porch on the nearest house.  I added more color to the near rooftops and the far chimney.  After I took the photo but before I removed the frisket, I drew in more branches so that they’ll appear as if behind the ones that are covered with masking.  

I removed the masking with a Pink Pearl and my fingers.  This painting is still in process....

 




















Feb 3, '10 


Here's the final version of Culvert St 8.  I thought it was finished but as I was working some Prussion Blue into #10, I saw where it might benefit this painting, so glazed in a few areas which made the entire painting feel cooler and gave it a little more depth.  The thing I'm happiest with in this painting is the way the branch came out from using liquid frisket and also from the enjoyment of painting the less prominent branches.....

Study 012310

Study, CS 012310


I did this small (6"x9")  painting this past Friday morning, looking out on the street from my dining room window.  I had a time limit, 2 hours.  What I wanted to accomplish with this study was to work from nothing to a concept for a painting in that time.  I also wanted to try out a masking solution.  I don’t ordinarily take frisket with me when I’m painting outside because it usually takes too much time to apply and then let dry.  But, since I’m painting from the comfort of home (as if I were outdoors...)  and have easy access to a hair dryer, I decided to give the frisket a try and think about whether or not I want to add it to the bag of things I take with me when painting outside.  While looking for a brush or some kind of tool to use to apply the frisket after I did the initial drawing I thought of a tool I’d bought years ago and barely tried, never used.  I had to look in a few stash-spots to find it.  According to a label on the barrel, it’s a Walnut Drawing Stick and is made by Tom Norton Designs, Cambridge, MA.  It was a splurge-purchase; I’ve had it for many years.  It appealed to me initially because of the chisel pointed end.  I think I intended using it for some kind of Calligraphy project.

Apparently it’s made of walnut and has a chisel tip with a fine slit from the tip up the center to a tiny tiny hole  carved into the nib and the whole thing carved out of a length of walnut.  On the other end of the tool, similar in size as the nib, a soft  pointed tool made out of what appears to me to be the kind of heavy felt used in regards to  piano keys.  I imagine the tool on the other end is  used for pushing paint, wiping, smudging...?  A myriad of uses, create your own...?  The chisel tipped calligraphy-type nib was WONDERFUL for applying liquid frisket.  The tool made the experience much more direct and easier to use and clean up after than a brush.  Plus, the friskit didn’t wreck the wood, as frisket will permanently mess up a brush, even after soaping up the head of the brush, close to the ferrule, with soap.  The frisket wiped off the wooden nib, leaving no traces or damage.  I actually enjoyed planning the branches and making the calligraphy of the masked areas of the tree limb in the painting.  I was aware that the possibilities for this tool are endless.

I decided to divide the spaces of my painting this way:

The tree limb
  
Shadows on the road in GGB and added UB

Cadmium Yellow tinted wash in the sky area with the most yellow pooling-up at the tree line.  CY on the lightest part of the house and porch in the foreground.

Tree line in GGB with AC added where the trees meet sky

The farthest house washed in with light application of GGB.  The lawn between the two houses was done with pure Burnt Sienna in the light and with a little added GGB in the dark. 
      

I used very light/transparent washes in the initial washes as the basis for subsequent layers of added paint.  I wanted to get down,  on paper and in memory,  as much of the scene as possible before the moving sun changed the shadows and also wanted the paper to be covered with a thin skin of paint and yet be slightly damp for further work.

Because the light of the sky is important to the painting, that’s what I started with.    The day was cold and so was the blue.  The sky was very blue, but not perfectly clear or vivid.  The yellow tint I put down before painting the sky gave the area a bluish, subdued, opaque blue, which is how I saw the sky that morning.  I also saw the shadows as being deeply blue and since they were the stars of the show, emphasized the shape with as much blue as I could stand.  I think that they’re waaaay too blue, but for purposes of studying them and using them in a painting, I’m very pleased.  I know what I’d do differently ‘next time.’  I also cleaned up and re-enforced some of the detail in the painting – windows, chimney, shadows....

When I was satisfied I’d done all I wanted to do with the painting I let it dry,  then rubbed off the frisket and got to work on the branches.  For some of the finer branches I used a Pink Pearl to rub off the masking, the widest part I rubbed off with my finger.  Then I added the branches using a pre-mixed dark, medium and light made of GGB and Burnt Sienna.  I applied it rather heavily in some spots, very lightly in others, hoping to give the sense of movement, undulation, blowing in the wind....

I can see where I could change or ‘fix’ this painting, but have decided to leave it, for now.  The foreground shadow is too blue, needs to be dulled down and blend with the road.  The middle ground shadow needs more color.  The road needs to be a lighter color and tone.

Culvert St Series 6

This painting was done from the window of my studio on a very cold day, early January, '10.  For the first time in this series, I used the black I made in the underpainting, to set the tone.  I like the shape of the house in the middle ground, lightened with Cad. Yellow.

 

 

Culvert St Series 5 -- Hornet Nest

 

 

I see the hornet nest constantly from my living room window.  The day I did this painting, it seemed a good idea to wrap the composition around the nest.

The day was cold and clear.  What interested me in this painting was the Hornet Nest, small yet prominent in the bulk of horizontal and vertical bulk.

This is what I see from one of the windows in my living room.  I think about those hornets a lot in the winter.

Study, CS 012310


I did this small (6"x9")  painting this past Friday morning, looking out on the street from my dining room window.  I had a time limit, 2 hours.  What I wanted to accomplish with this study was to work from nothing to a concept for a painting in that time.  

I also wanted to try out a masking solution.  I don’t ordinarily take frisket with me when I’m painting outside because it usually takes too much time to apply and then let dry.  But, since I’m painting from the comfort of home (as if I were outdoors...)  and have easy access to a hair dryer, I decided to give the frisket a try and think about whether or not I want to add it to the bag of things I take with me when painting outside.  While looking for a brush or some kind of tool to use to apply the frisket after I did the initial drawing I thought of a tool I’d bought years ago and barely tried, never used.  I had to look in a few stash-spots to find it.  According to a label on the barrel, it’s a Walnut Drawing Stick and is made by Tom Norton Designs, Cambridge, MA.  It was a splurge-purchase; I’ve had it for many years.  It appealed to me initially because of the chisel pointed end.  I think I intended using it for some kind of Calligraphy project.

Apparently it’s made of walnut and has a chisel tip with a fine slit from the tip up the center to a tiny tiny hole  carved into the nib and the whole thing carved out of a length of walnut.  On the other end of the tool, similar in size as the nib, a soft  pointed tool made out of what appears to me to be the kind of heavy felt used in regards to  piano keys.  I imagine the tool on the other end is  used for pushing paint, wiping, smudging...?  A myriad of uses, create your own...?  The chisel tipped calligraphy-type nib was WONDERFUL for applying liquid frisket.  The tool made the experience much more direct and easier to use and clean up after than a brush.  Plus, the friskit didn’t wreck the wood, as frisket will permanently mess up a brush, even after soaping up the head of the brush, close to the ferrule, with soap.  The frisket wiped off the wooden nib, leaving no traces or damage.  I actually enjoyed planning the branches and making the calligraphy of the masked areas of the tree limb in the painting.  I was aware that the possibilities for this tool are endless.

 


I decided to divide the spaces of my painting this way:

The tree limb
    
Shadows on the road in GGB and added UB

Cadmium Yellow tinted wash in the sky area with the most yellow pooling-up at the tree line.  CY on the lightest part of the house and porch in the foreground.  

Tree line in GGB with AC added where the trees meet sky

The farthest house washed in with light application of GGB.  The lawn between the two houses was done with pure Burnt Sienna in the light and with a little added GGB in the dark.   
        

I used very light/transparent washes in the initial washes as the basis for subsequent layers of added paint.  I wanted to get down,  on paper and in memory,  as much of the scene as as possible before the moving sun changed the shadows and also wanted the paper to be covered with paint and be slightly damp for further work.

 

Because the light of the sky is important to the painting, that’s what I started with.    The day was cold and so was the blue.  The sky was very blue, but not perfectly clear or vivid.  The yellow tint I put down before painting the sky gave the area a bluish, subdued, opaque blue, which is how I saw the sky that morning.  I also saw the shadows as being deeply blue and since they were the stars of the show, emphasized the shape with as much blue as I could stand.  I think that they’re waaaay too blue, but for purposes of studying them and using them in a painting, I’m very pleased.  I know what I’d do differently ‘next time.’  I also cleaned up and re-enforced some of the detail in the painting – windows, chimney, shadows....

 

When I was satisfied I’d done all I wanted to do with the painting I let it dry,  then rubbed off the frisket and got to work on the branches.  For some of the finer branches I used a Pink Pearl to rub off the masking, the widest part I rubbed off with my finger.  Then I added the branches using a pre-mixed dark, medium and light made of GGB and Burnt Sienna.  I applied it rather heavily in some spots, very lightly in others, hoping to give the sense of movement, undulation, blowing in the wind....

I can see where I could change or ‘fix’ this painting, but have decided to leave it, for now.  The foreground shadow is too blue, needs to be dulled down and blend with the road.  The middle ground shadow needs more color.  The road needs to be a lighter color and tone.

Study 011910 -- Culvert St.

#1 Drawing.  I've separated the drawing into areas; the background where the pencil lines are darkest, the middle ground between the pine tree and the background; the middle foreground in front of the pine tree.  I've tried to keep the shapes simple, as if they were cut out with scissors as if patches of fabric to be sewn together into a quilt-piece.  I know my lines aren't straight and that it would've looked better had I used a ruler.  Next time....

#2.  Using GGBlack, I've separated each individual block into space with the items farther away being the darkest.  The lightest area, the portion of the house and roof in the foreground, were done with the lightest amount of the gray.  This photo hasn't been de-saturated; this is the way it appeared in a color photo.

#3 Photo is the same as #2 except without the pencil lines, which I erased with a Pink Pearl Eraser.   I set down a highly tinted sky background using CY and AC.  Highly tinted means a lot of water and a minuscule amount of pigment.  It was such a slight amount of pigment that it doesn't show in the photo.  The lightest area (CY) was placed at the peak of the foreground rooftop.  The tint of AC was spread out to the left of the yellow and I finished it off with GGBlack with a little UB added -- to keep it light, also dull.

#4  I want to keep this a low key painting to commemorate this low key day, so I mixed a neutral gray using UB and BS.  The  lightest area (foreground house wall) was painted using more BS in the gray mix.  I darkened this mix for the breezeway behind the house and darkened it with increasing amounts of UB when I did the two houses beyond the pine tree.  I had a puddle of GGB left on the pallet and used bits of that in the middle ground and background.  I used the UB/BS mix (in the nature of a very light tint) to re-do the sky area -- I used more in the lh corner and lightened it up as I got closer to the light area over the roof.  I used up the puddle of GBB and the UB/BS mix to fill in the tree behind the breezeway and some of the window openings.  For the shadow under the eaves, I used GBB with a little added UB -- more in the foreground shadow, less in the breezeway shadow.

#5  I haven't touched the walls of the 2 foreground houses but did fill in the roof color a little more.  When I did the roofs the 1st time, I worked from front to back* grading the wash from a heavy application of paint to a lighter application as I got closer to the roof line.  When I did the roofs a 2nd time, I mixed for color and started applying it a 3rd of the way down from the top, easing it into, blending it into the dark.  I worked quickly so that I could then ease the top part of the new wash into the top part of the roof.  I tweaked some of the details; shadows, windows, the pine tree and the maple fanning out over the middle ground behind the maple.  Since today is a low-key, misty kind of day, I'm leaving the painting as is.

*I turned the painting upside down so I was able to grade the wash from the heavier application of paint to the lighter....

 

                                                           

 Vanitas, January 2010

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In the arts, Vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Eccliastes from the Bible is often quoted in conjunction with this term. The Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible) renders the verse as Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas. The verse is translated as Vanity of vanities; all is vanity by the King James Version of the Bible, and Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless by the New International Version of the Bible.



Vanitas themes were common in medieval funerary art, with most surviving examples in sculpture. By the 15th century these could be extremely morbid and explicit, reflecting an increased obsession with death and decay also seen in the Ars Moriendi, Danse Macabre and the overlapping motif of the Memento mori. From the Renaissance such motifs gradually became more indirect, and as the still-life genre became popular, found a home there. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. They also provided a moral justification for many paintings of attractive objects.


Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay like ageing; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life; and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life. Fruit, flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, and a peeled lemon, as well as accompanying seafood was, like life, attractive to look at, but bitter to taste. There is debate among art historians as to how much, and how seriously, the vanitas theme is implied in still lifes without explicit imagery such as a skull. As in much moralistic genre painting, the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of the subject is in a certain conflict with the moralistic message."


"...the enjoyment evoked by the sensuous depiction of the subject is in certain conflict with the moralistic message."


The enjoyment experienced by the depiction of the subject is despite -- laughing in the face of -- the reality of the moralistic message.

 This is my Vanitas, a work in process,  with my fake peaches, fake skull, fake sunflower head, wooden horse and block and a cobalt blue jug. Some of the symbols are artificial renderings of real things -- peaches, flower, skull -- the horse is the symbol for Horse (power of Nature), the horse in my painting is made of wood and painted with symbols that represent good luck. As symbols, all these things are 'real' and represent the reality of Vanity, vast existential emptiness, transience, brevity of life, the events that give life all meaning/no meaning whatsoever,  from one moment to the next.

********  Jan. 19, '10


I've finished Vanitas 0110 for the moment.  I felt that if I worked on it any more, I'd 'make mud.'  I'm happy with the painting although given a next time, there are things I'd do differently.