I kinda love this one, and you’re not going to hear me say that often.
Today as I was organizing my studio I came across an 11×14″ plein air painting I did last fall. The painting never really worked and in general fell flat. So I picked it up and worked on it again today. I still have the big piles of paint on my palate from yesterday’s painting so that’s what I used. So the colors are similar to yesterday’s painting and I added a few new ones.
Working on nonrepresentational abstracts has been freeing for me, it’s as if a switch has been flipped in my mind and art allowing me to paint beyond what I see, and without getting caught up in matching reality.
Abstract landscapes might be where it’s at for me, at least for a little while. I look forward to getting outside and doing more plein air work. The weather is about to be great here, it’s getting green and the trees have colorful blossoms, I’m still waiting on the sun and warm weather.
Today I took an abstract I had been working on that had lost direction and took it in a new direction and made it into an abstract landscape. I tried to be loose and to use a lot of paint and vary the direction of brush strokes. It was a fun exercise to try to create a landscape without fussing over makI got it look exactly like what I see, but to represent it.
I started this mother/daughter portrait last week and look forward to working on it more when it dries. I’ll add to their features and I will use glazes to bring up the chroma and hopefully bring them to life. I also look forward to playing around with those people and dog playing in the water behind them.
During our Southern California trip we made our way to Huntington Beach on a perfect 75 degree spring day, with about 10,000 other people. It was warm, blue skies, and lots of people to watch. My kids loved playing in the water even though the lifeguards worked hard to scare all the swimmers out of the rip tide. The ocean was pretty wild. My husband ran along the beach for an hour and I sat and watched the kids and everyone else on the beach. For lunch we walked down the pier to Ruby’s Diner and got take out and sat on the pier to eat it.
24×24″ oil on canvas
I’ve been working to find my voice with abstract art. I find it much more difficult than realism with portraits, dogs, landscape, plein air, and still life… with all those I have something to reference and it’s all mapped out and I paint what I see. Painting music and feelings or even just putting together interesting combinations of color is hard for me because there is no road map, and right now for me the painting comes down to composition and color. And it’s all wide open. Don’t get me wrong, I think realism is challenging, but I have learned to push forward until my piece reflect the intended object and I know from the start what I want the end result to be. Maybe I’ll get there with my abstract work as well, I’m right at the beginning of that journey.
This doggie portrait is done! I finished it today. Isn’t she a cutie!?!
This one is pretty much done. I say pretty much done because I feel like I still need to take a closer look at the older boy. But their mom loves it, so I’m in good shape. I was a little worried about how thick and rough this one was getting. It has a lot of paint and texture, and not a lot of finesse. But then I compared it with the Cezanne portrait I saw at the Getty Center and felt like it was pretty smooth compared to that. I don’t compare myself to Cezanne often, or really, ever. But when I saw his bold choppy brush strokes on this guy’s face, I thought to myself, “well, I guess I can do whatever the heck I want to,”. Cezanne did. His portrait work is not at all precious. I will need to find someone I want to have revenge on and paint a Cezannesque portrait of them. I’m kidding. But that is what Cezannes friend said of his portraits, that it was like he was taking revenge on his subject for some unseen offense.
Jill Millward Artwork 