On Painting - Part Six

Image: Ken Kewley, Figures on Rocks, 2001, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 60 inches

From an interview with Ken Kewley on Painting Perceptions website

Using paint does not make one a painter. Paint can do so much more. The life of a painter is a life of exploring.

With the same brush work from dark to lighter, putting in darks while your brush is loaded with that value. Rinse only when you need to go quickly from one extreme to another.

Three elements in the right relationship get much closer to feeling real and often are enough to carry the whole. Do as little as possible.

Emphasize one thing over another. It is saying; “This is want I want you to look at”.

Paint with color-shapes. One color-shape followed by another. Reacting without rejecting. Paint instinctively. If not looking at nature then having looked at nature. Do not fall in love with any part. Always think of the whole. Stopping at the thought of stopping.

Overlapping is a large tool. Overlapping colors hold down other colors. They become steps into and out of space. Little and big steps. Controlling multiple planes.

The same lessons need to be learnt over and over.

Del Kathryn Barton- AGNSW Video

Another video of an artist explaining her entry into the Belnaves Contemporary painting exhibition - That I mIssed!!! How is that possible???

marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas, Figure in a Landscape, 2010. Oil on linen, 70 7/8 x 118 1/8 x 1 inches, 180 x 300 x 2.5 cm. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York.

Came across this new exhibition by one of my all time favourite artists, Marlene Dumas at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. When I first saw the painting, I was disappointed as I am used to the full frontal, zoomed in nudes or portraits with an edge, which has, until now, been typical of her work. However, there's a great analysis in the Art Daily Blog which, when read, made me more uncomfortable with the often ostensibly decorative art that I am prone to produce. It's a rare case of reading about the work actually adding to its value and appreciability rather than standing in for the lack of visual communication of a painting.

To be so interesting visually, but have such thought provoking content that can move the viewer on many levels is what I would like to do, also. But I guess that's what makes Marlene Dumas the great international artist, much copied but never equalled, that she is.