First Day, Second Week

False Start, 30x20

I just started taking the Advanced Master Painting class with Kevin Weckbaugh. The first day of class was last Monday, which I missed. A friend, who is also in class, was kind enough to call me and give me the gist of what I missed so I could prepare for today. Well, I must have willfully read into it what I wanted to hear because I am off to a false start. I understood that this month's project is about abstraction and that we could take a photo reference but we had to abstract it. I picked this photo my son had taken downtown a few years ago as it is already fairly abstract. I have been told I must get it beyond the "feel" of buildings, so I did start on that before class ended today, but only after I had a really good start on it looking like buildings. It was hard for me to start "erasing" all that work as I really liked what I had going. I am tempted to wipe the whole thing off and start a new one, but then on the other hand I would like to try and pull this off.

The notes from today are pretty sparse. We were told to be aware of line quality. To vary the line and create a dialogue with it. One of my buddies was using Franz Kline to get that dialogue, while Kevin prefers Willem deKonig. I am going to look at Richard Diebenkorn this week for inspiration. Kevin really wants us to play with the visual dialogue this month and for us to ask questions of ourselves while we work. ie What is working, what isn't working; is there too much of something or too little? how is the color working? is there harmony? To keep in mind that the easiest way to create shape is with line, and to try to incorporate line into the painting and to think about soft edged line and sharp edged line - ie to vary between the two. AND most importantly, to not be afraid or "ruining it" since this is all about playing and getting out of our comfort zone. Since we paint on one painting for a month, all canvas must be large.