Docs

Oil on Canvas 40"x30"
I redid the background on this piece, giving it a cool grey from the pinkish it was before. It is going into the show at the Ian Tan gallery in Vancouver on April 18. Apparently, when the background was pinkish, patrons were interested but the comments were, "I can't live with the pink". All right all ready, no big deal to change it.
I want to thank Simon Holzman for his comments and invitation to view his blog. After the show I will have time to go through everyone's websites and am looking forward to seeing new art.
As the deadline for the show approaches, I notice my psychology changing. I feel more like a fireman, putting out one fire after another, and it's not how I like to create. In the "fix it now" mode that deadlines impose, it becomes perilously easy to overwork an area of a painting. Yecchhh.
It brings me to a thought I had about the painting process. It occurred that what I am trying to do with paint is akin to alchemy. It is about coaxing the paint to do the impossible; turning the dense, flat, opaque earth minerals into luminous expressions of what the conscious mind percieves and imagines. I don't recall signing up for the impossible, but somehow, that is what I find myself doing. When the process gets frustrating, it helps to remind myself that, well, it's impossible anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it.