Transition to colour

The desire to work with colour again was growing in me, especially after working on a couple of oil/canvas commissions I’ve done in Spring. I have started adding colour to my graphite drawings, but it didn’t work as I wished it would (the colour and greys were mostly arguing instead of supporting each other). At first I couldn’t really see how my ideas could be executed in colour, so I decided to start easy. I literally reproduced this piece (first made using graphite and oils) in colour using very limited pallet (I think it was madder lake deep, cadmium red and titanium white). That allowed me to just feel the paint again, try to manipulate it a bit this way and that and play with luminosity. I think it was a successful first step.

not the whole canvas

I have realised that there are so many subconscious rules that limit me. Why are they there, and when exactly have I formed them and allowed them to control my creative process, I don’t know. But as I discover them one by one, I try to break them.

There is one funny rule I’ve had that I became conscious about - that I must cover the whole surface of the canvas with pain, otherwise the work is unfinished - bizarre, I know, childish even.

This small piece I’ve made firmly keeping in mind the silliness of this “rule”. I continued my new exploration of colour in very limited spectrum, kept it as fresh as I could. It still feels like a drawing to me, I still draw with paint (OK, may be the first layer). I think my transition to painting will be very graduate. At the moment I can’t be sure if I will ever be able to call myself a painter, because drawing feels so natural to me.

new inspiration piece

The Limit, 1947, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 128.9 x 157.5 cm. Private collection.

I just love when life leads me to new people, places (physical and emotional), art pieces, new understandings…

This time I came across this piece “The Limit” by Arshile Gorki and it opened a whole new world to me: a life of another amazing artist, his journey, history, approach to colour, composition, way of working… And I know there are so many amazing art pieces to appreciate, but it’s easy to get lost, or your attention is sort of dissolved; but when something is really pointed at you, you allow this dialogue and connection and then it stays with you for the rest of your life.

That’s the beauty and magic of painting - I don’t even know what exactly speaks to me so profoundly in this piece, but it evokes something in me that no other art form can reach. That is why I love my disciplines; they are much more subtle than say music or film, but they have their own power in their subtlety.