Preliminary sketches
Lately, I've been working on large scale paintings on paper. (The two images shown here are small scale studies for the larger paintings) I found some paper that comes in 60yd rolls. It's a synthetic watercolor paper made by Yupo. Last night I finished the roll and need to order a new one. I managed to get 3 paintings out of the roll. Each painting is 5ft x 9ft. I lOVE working this large and I want to take advantage of the space my studio offers to work this way.
What first started as a plan to work with landscape in new media, turned into a formal study in painting. What I realized, after all this time, is the elements of the landscape and form that I photographed and superimposed with my organic, fluid paintings are actual formal studies of line, form and color. The imagery I used was secondary to these elements.
Being in grad school, I sometimes feel like I repeat myself, my ideas and the things that interest me. The two things that kept repeating in my dialogues were the fluidity of paint and the sharp angles of architecture. These two elements have always interested me in the work I produce. It's when those two elements combine that I get the most excited. Somehow those distinct forms create a dissonance and harmony that, for me, have become metaphors for many ideas: piety/desire, male/female, organic/manmade.
When I finally reduced those elements to basic form and shape I came up with the square, gestural marks and color. I don't feel that I will tire of exploring these elements for awhile and I plan on continuing to focus on this series for the remainder of my time in school.
I've been working on paintings for a show in September at Cactus Bra where I'll be exhibiting these new large scale paintings on paper.
