"Abbreviated World"

(unavailable....water soluble oils)

"We live in an abbreviated world." The arts often reflect contemporary culture. The most descriptive word for me is...abbreviated. We all expect others and ourselves to accomplish everything in a very short time period. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, the steps to become skilled cannot be abbreviated.

My mixed media has come back with full force. This piece began on a 9" x 12" piece of linen canvas using water soluble oils. So the very abstract background was done first, followed by a tree limb and some leaves. By placing a layer of cad.yellow light over the entire surface first, I was able to reveal that layer as I wrote and created gestural strokes in the wet paint. My goal was to be able to crop the piece to give myself more options. However, the canvas cannot be cut to size until the painting is dry so I actually did the cropping after bringing the image into iphoto.

It's an interesting way to work if you can follow my convoluted thought process. But it is worth the effort to have more options when beginning the work with total abstraction and not knowing where additional images will be placed. Even with all of this montage of color... shapes and division of space were still in my decision making. The tree limb goes edge to edge as well as the red-orange color. And by working with a limited palette, the colors are harmonious. 

There is also a lot of freedom involved by working in oils which stay wet for several days and even longer with thick paint. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.