art – Page 13 – Kaiser Caimo

Watercolour print. I made about 60 of these over two days. I have no idea what to do with them. Are they finished?

Struggling a bit with this one. I think I’ve figured out why. “Paint a figure study in oils” is basically my artistic default setting: it’s an almost automatic response to a blank canvas. But my oil painting technique is slow and methodical and involves building lots of layers and occupying the same mindset for as long as it takes to finish the damn thing. I am not in the right frame of mind for that just now. My interests are all over the place and I’m acting on impulse a lot and I’m not in the mood for reflection. Gotta find a new technique.

Detail, work in progress (torso). Oil on paper.

SO. hello.

Since the move, I have been really, really unfocused. I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s…fine, actually. It’s great. I am not worrying about the future, or dwelling on things that don’t matter, or making any plans whatsoever beyond the level of “maybe I will buy a nice pencil today”. My sleep patterns are all over the place, I am probably drinking too much and I think I have forgotten how to read but that is okay. For now.

Since my attention span is shot, I am not committing to any large-scale or long-term painting projects just now. Instead, in the spirit of spontaneity, I’ve been messing about with low-fi, quick & dirty, one-off print techniques – monoprint/monotype, frottage, collagraph, and what-have-you.

Untitled prints, water-based ink on various papers.

So, I stayed up too late one night trying to fix this painting and ended up slathering most of it in a thin layer of Prussian blue. The result struck me with the force of an epiphany and I even wrote a note to myself that read “WHEN IN DOUBT BLUE” and pinned it up in the studio with a flourish. Next day I came back in and saw this. Hahaha what the hell have I been doing?

So I took the only logical course of action. I abandoned the painting and moved house.

Female head study. Monoprint, approx 5×7", and the preliminary sketch.

Female figure study. Monoprint + white pencil. Approx 5×8"

I had these prints stashed away in a folder because they didn’t print right and I thought they looked sloppy and illegible. Then I decided, ACTUALLY, I quite like them. So here they are.

Monoprint + graphite/white pencil, approx 5"x7"

Another head study. Ink, bleach, watercolour & pencils on Bockingford paper.

Still a work in progress.

Oil on canvas.

I am trying to make myself like this city better by getting to know its nooks and crannies.

To be honest, it feels kinda like trying to convince yourself you’re in love with some girl when you watch her changing her clothes too near her bedroom window.

Pencil sketches jazzed up in Photoshop.