Etude #9

Objective:

With this picture, when I started it, I did not have a strong agenda in mind. I approached this work with the mindset that I am ‘performing piano scales’. This is a practice work (ETUDE).

The concept behind the Etude pictures is that I take a source photo and use it as a jumping off point in order to explore mark making, color, and new mediums. In this case I am working with Egg Tempera which is still very new to me.

Inspiration:

I am thinking of 100s of artists while I work. While working, I’m also jumping across 10s of paintings every day so really I’m looking at artists who are informing a larger body of work that I am undertaking. A couple of those artists are:

**Gandy Brodie**
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*Blue Chair and Paint Rag*
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1975

Brodie was known for using thick layered paint slashing marks, and abandon. The fact that this process ended up culminating in the production of paintings depicting calm scenes of every day objects like this chair is a nice juxtaposition.
I am striving to get that slash and burn effect.

**David Park** - Woman Reading, 1957

David Park, was one of the first artists that made an impression on me as a kid. I remember going to SFMOMA and seeing this huge painting of his. I found his way of looking at the world was startling. I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but I thought about it for a long time… to the point where I realized that part of what makes good art is the act of thinking about it over time. Good art is partly an object of beauty however one defines it and its partly about the concept, the idea behind it.
In this painting I appreciate the big bold color shapes and fearless mark making. I like that Park cared about a sense of space and the composition.

**End of Stage 5**

This was really working for me here. I had a hard time moving on to the next step.

**End of Stage 6**

I spent two weeks of looking at the last image (end of stage 5) before I could do this. I really liked where it was at and it was so hard to paint over it.
I really like this step too.
Damn it. The paint needs more depth.

**End of Session 16**

At this point I put all of my egg tempera’s aside for a period of time to focus on watercolor.
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I decided to stop here to preserve where I was mentally on a couple of the 40 Etude tempera panels I started. I have plans on what to do next with them and that would just obliterate where I’m stopping at here.
I feel like something was lost between ‘session 5’ and this end result.
I like this ending place, but I also want the raw visceral impact of the earlier stages. I feel like I can eventually find a way to pull that rawness to this level of completeness. I think that is what I am working towards. I think my ‘next step’ ideas might do that.

Judgement:

I feel like I could take this work a lot further. I don’t think I will. I kind of like the idea of leaving this work and Etude 24 as they are. I think they depict the stage I am at right now well.

Color: I like it. It could be taken further. Its good. 5/10

Mark Making: I have some ideas on how to attack the egg tempera paintings differently than I was when I paused things. My reason for ending this piece here is to have a waystone marking where I was. I think the future mark making compared to this is going to be an interesting contrast. 6/10

Conceptual: This is a stand alone piece and part of a larger group. As part of a larger effort incorporates metadata in a new way, the very act of this scoring system is something new. As a part of a larger group, its intended to be like crack for collectors. I’m pulling out all of the stops by incorporating everything I have learned about our society, the generation of wealth, and coveting rarities over 50 years into this group of artworks. I also think the ability for a collector to mix and match one or more of these pieces to create new conglomerate works is pretty cool. 10/10

Sociological: I can’t judge my own work. I’d give it a ten. I’m thinking long term. Right now its a zero? I’ll give it a 1 to start because I need something for my algorithm. 1/10

Overall: 5.5

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