PAINTING
I was sitting in my apartment in 1979 looking at the bare walls. I had two
choices; I could go to the mall gallery and buy works to put up, or I
could go to the Grand and Toy, buy art supplies, and make my own works
to hang. I had no formal art training, and I certainly was not in any way
an artist, but that did not stop me. I bought the supplies, and that is how
it all began. Honestly.
My first three works were not very impressive, but, by the fourth I had figured
a few things out. This landscape is, in fact, my fourth painting. It was painted
at the dining room table from my memories and impressions of Muskoka. It began
very tightly, each fall leaf being painted in a colourful band of trees running
across the center. After a couple of hours of painting all those little spots,
it occurred to me that the painting wasn't coming out like I wanted it to, and,
further, that I really had no idea how to paint anyway. I remember getting angry.
I began to smudge the band of colour, and then with reckless, careless, and
thoughtless abandon, began to clean the paint off my pallet and to smear and
blob it onto the canvas board. The blobs of pure colour remain to this day
- alizarin, cerulean, a warm yellow, a cool transparent yellow, viridian,
various opaque reds, black, white, and, of course, "flesh".
Still visible as well are the bold, dashing, untrained and unrestrained
brush strokes. I could not hope to reproduce such raw energy in any
conscious work. I love this painting!
This work is in my collection.
Your comments and questions are welcomed. E-mail me.