Available: $1200
Oil on panel, 12 x 9 inches
Please contact me if you’re interested in this painting.
Seeing is complicated.
I’ve spent more hours than I can count judging colours, trying to match them as closely as I can, learning how to shift them slightly this way or that.
Now, I’m practising combining them in different ways, and my thought process is changing.
In a sense, getting colour right is most of painting. But in another sense, it’s only the beginning. For me now, not having to struggle with getting the colours I want now means I can begin to think more about other aspects of picture making.
Right now, I’m becoming very interested in texture, and how it relates to seeing. If the surface of a painting can be brought alive with texture and variation, it seems somehow to become a more compelling. If I paint something very flat, without modulation of the colour and without much texture, it looks deadened to me, lifeless.
Something about adding texture to the surface makes the painting more lifelike – perhaps just more alive. When I put down paint with a brush now, I’m more interested in trying to find a way to make the paint mimic something about what I’m seeing, rather than laying down flat. This also is the first time I’ve painted with sandpaper!
But if I’m having trouble talking clearly about what I’m doing now when I’m rolling the brush sideways, or sanding back and repainting parts, it’s even more difficult to talk about the rest of painting – the meaning behind a piece.
A lot of it is coming from the objects I’m painting at the moment. The brass pot in the background is a Ganga Jal, or Jamla, a Hindu pot for carrying the holy water of the Ganges.
Hindus believe that scattering the ashes of their dead in the Ganges will bring them closer to Moksha, release from the cycle of death and rebirth. From a psychological point of view, moksha means release, and can also stand for self-realisation and self-knowledge.
Thinking about these things as I was working on this painting may have influenced the way it looks, or it may not, I can’t tell you. But the associations are meaningful, and that’s why I chose this pot as one of my vessels.
Although it’s in the background, the Ganga pot and the ideas associated with it are really the central element.
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Oh, it’s BEAUTIFUL, Paul!!
Thank you Bronwen 🙂
It’s wonderful, and your comment about the vase confirmed what I was thinking about how you chose to handle the subject. It has a bit of an other worldly touch and expresses the subject well.
Thank you Lynn! Maybe a little of it did come across after all 🙂
Hi Paul, In the Ganga Jal you found a strong object to paint. I find the roses rather distracting. I think the jar, the wall en the crack will do.
And there I was wondering about the blue vase 🙂
Paul, would you expand on ‘ painting with sandpaper’ please. I work on fine sandpaper when using pastels and sometimes add fine sand etc to the gesso ground when using oils or acrylic. Are you working on a textured surface? You have lovely soft edges in ‘vessels’
Hi Jeanette, no it wasn’t in the ground. I was abrading the background with some medium-fine sandpaper to give it some texture, then glazing over it again to soften it, and I noticed that I could actually control the values to an extent by pressing harder with the sandpaper – some of the detail around the hole in the fabric in the background is actually “drawn” with sandpaper. I also used it to disappear some of the edges here and there. I’d say “soften” the edges but that wasn’t really what was happening. They were disappearing though.
I’m tempted to try sand in the ground though, I definitely want more texture and having in the ground sounds like a great idea! This panel was too smooth so I had to do a lot of work to put the texture into the paint. I’m still exploring this aspect of painting and have lots of experiments to try out 🙂
Hi Paul, you have created another masterpiece! Thank you for sharing your process. I hope all is going well for you! Nina
Hah! Thank you Nina, very much appreciated 🙂
Aloha!
Your use of texture reminds me of studying Rembrandt. Some of his paint was so textured it picked up light and created its own shadows. Amazing. I enjoy seeing your work. Thank you for sharing your journey. Pam
Yes the texture definitely adds an element – I hadn’t thought of that, ut no doubt it picking up the light has a lot to do with what it adds to the picture.
Beautiful, rich colour and texture, that show up well in the close up shots. I love the story that adds to the mystery of the picture.
Thank you Marg 🙂
Paul, can I share your page to my FB groups? Please let me know. I wish I could own the masterpiece! But…!
Someone must own this….apart from the artist 😀
You are awesome!
Baishakhi
Of course Baishakhi, I’d appreciate that very much! Thank you 🙂
Great! Shared
I love every aspect of this painting—it’s spiritual nature, composition, color, texture. I disagree with comment that the flowers are distracting. They are placed beautifully.
Thanks Holley – I like them too 🙂