Richard's Painting

"Richard's Painting"

This painting is called "Richard's Painting" because it was commissioned by Richard.  It is an oil painting on panel and it is about 24" x 36".  I just finished it.

Richard approached me about doing a painting to convey his ideas about love, connection and companionship.  He had powerful feelings and thoughts but no specific idea of what it would look like. He thought it should have some of the innocence and magic of an artist like Marc Chagall.  And he suggested it have something of the "new thought" spiritual vibe.  He knew it should have two figures that appeared to be emanating light and energy and that they should be holding a grail.  He did not want them to be too realistic...almost like beings of light themselves.

The first image was my first attempt.

Richard liked the arrangement but felt that the grail was too small and the figures appeared to be coming into being which is cool but what he wanted was more of an emanation.  Liked the feeling of them flying over the landscape.

Here is my second attempt.

Loved the grail.  But wanted the hands to be holding the stem of the grail.  Also..the figures appeared too realistic....too "there."   He did like the sense that they were now emanating energy but it appeared too much like fire to him.   At this stage he wanted to give up.  The process is a bit arduous and frustrating after all. However...he did give me some clear directions.....he was now certain that he wanted the background to be dark blue or black and the emanations to be white and look more like lightening than fire.   He also wanted the figures to be less distinctly figures.

Here is my third attempt.

He loved it.  He just wanted a few touches such as more sparkle overall and he wanted the figure on the left to be re-defined a bit.  Otherwise this was the moment of certainty he was looking for.

So below is the final version.

Enjoy.  And let me know if you think you want me to help you create a visual of your vision of Love.

Portrait Experiment: Two Women With One Yellow Shirt

Portrait Experiment  oil on panel  20x14"                     Same painting in another stage...complete

The painting on the left was done alone in my studio.  There was no model or photo to support the exploration.  It is, in fact, painted over a small abstract painting.
It was an exploration of trust.  I wanted to see who would emerge if I simply started to paint without any intent or preconceived notion  of who it would be or how it would be painted.
It doesn't look like anyone I can think of in my friendship circle or history.

After a few weeks of sitting around the studio I decided that it was not enough.
I sat down in front of the painting again with the intention of it becoming "something else" and something that would have a quality that would make me want to keep looking at it.

I listened with my hand.
And indeed it is those tiny little "ideas"...the tributaries of real thought and direction that matter so much and are often so hard to give credence to.

But they are usually right there all the time.
I got lucky...I did hear them and what came out has fascinated me ever since.  The result is the painting on the right.  It looks hauntingly like two dear friends of mine.  Each offering something specific in their gaze...overlapping messages and overlapping visages...so truthful in the layering.

You may like the one on the left more...that's fine.  But I am grateful to have the one on the right.
I think I will call it:  "Two Women With One Yellow Shirt."

Drawings Inspired by Doug's Poem

These drawings are inspired by a poem.   

The poem is included at the bottom of the drawings.

                                                                                                                        5/7/12

Today’s News:  Spurned God Found Sipping Cappucino in Paris Café

Spider silk elaborates a latticework

in the corner of the waiting room.

While my car is under scrutiny,

I watch the sunlight animate strands into silent singing.

The waiting brings this incidental

monument

                        (to loving industry)

forward

and makes me wonder what else

I must have overlooked;

What other ordinary wonders am I missing

in my hurried and harried motions?

Just then, on the radio,

I listen to a pastor describe her loss of belief.

The host asks if she misses God,

as if God were a lover

who had grown bored and moved to Paris.

The question seems to forget,

to disregard all of nature

in its own right,

and so I ask the disembodied radio

as I entrench into my solitude,

Isn’t the presence of the startling and vast universe, that is,

isn’t the presence of nature itself enough?

Can we all just get along with that (and stop calling it God)? 

Can’t we disentangle the human situation

and then also free God from our festering wounds and tedious desires?

For my part,

I pour my longing and implacable world-pain into

the dingy corner of this shop

and find my emotions cohere to fashion an invisible bow

that plays inaudible music in an equally neglected corner. 

I look up to see if others can hear it, and find myself

smiling like a lonely fool, also happily forgotten.

I couldn’t find the spider there,

anywhere

but admittedly didn’t look very hard.

Maybe the spider was already dead,

having left his lures behind,

as if forsaken as an exiled god,

bereft of love but leaving signs of having loved,

off sipping coffee somewhere in France.                                   By Douglas Newton