most interviews with artists that i have read or seen (mainly from PBS's art:21) seem to suggest that the latter is how most operate, in other words the artist knows ahead of time what the work is trying to say.

i don't...i start a piece with mainly aesthetic intuition to guide me, and as i build up the surface and the imagery i begin to understand what it's about.

is this valid?

do you feel that, when the painting changes, that the process is somehow compromised by an...and i hate to use this word...inability, to clearly think out the painting beforehand?

playing devil's advocate,
cmcvay

oh by the way... for me... its always the process which is important when you paint... i wouldnt care so much of what comes first;planning and spontanaeity.. whatever you do..
being honest and unpretentious is the key.. explore your painintgs, discover yourself.. and dont forget about the fun..
well thats just what i think.
sean

I rarely begin a painting "blindly". I have 2 thick sketch books full of quickly drawn concepts along with tiny notes next to each pointing out the important points of the composition. I've found this is an invaluable method to capturing inspired ideas and keeping them before my short term memory purges them. It's also a simple way of defeating "artist block".

I flip through these sketch books when I don't have a strong idea what I want to create. Then from there I do up a reference drawing that is a little larger and fairly more detail, but I stop short of doing a "finished" reference sketch, as then I will be bored with the painting (nothing left to discover).

From this point I will either begin to paint from scratch molding the paint like clay as I add and subtract by rubbing out with an oil rag, or I will do a loose vine charcoal sketch, seal it with fixative and work over that.

the process is paramount for me as well. if i could get rid of that annoying starting point and just remake the same painting in different ways over and over again, i might be happy.

elkka, i admire you for being able to keep sketchbooks and actually get something worth painting out of them. i think it's somewhat of a character flaw of mine to put whatever ideas i've had into an untouchable past that doesn't relate well to the present.
what sort of work are you doing? figurative, abstract, etc?
i find myself more and more in an abstract vein, yet constantly trying to pull my love for the image and for detail back into my work.

i like what novita's said, and sean echoed, that art is a balance between planning and spontanaeity.

just a technical question here, elkka: isn't the fixative (or any other aerosol for that matter) acidic, causing it to deteriorate over time?

c. mcvay

--i think it's somewhat of a character flaw of mine to put whatever ideas i've had into an untouchable past that doesn't relate well to the present.--

I didn't quite understand this, could you elaborate?

As to what I'm painting, as always my first love is figurative drawing and painting- humans or animals. Next comes macabre landscapes and then abstract.

As far as the fixative question, I think once one of my big flaws as an artist was not painting for posterity...I'm just so aware of how fleeting life is I often find myself just living in the moment. Obviously as I've made sales I've had to change this method of thinking, no patron wants to buy a painting just to have it melt out of the frame monts later. Thus "archival" is the rule. The fixative I use is actually diluted rabit skin glue and acrylic medium mixed with water. I just sprits the mixture over the canvas lain flat, let it dry and most of the charcoal manages to stay put. Whatever mixes with the paint as I progress actually makes for a nice effect.

this is at the root of my original post. since i can't plan out a piece, i have to wait for a good idea to come along and then be able to set to work on it immediately, so i don't actually think it through and ruin it.

i'm just now learning the value of using archival quality media. i had a stack of nude figure drawings i was going to submit for a show, when i pulled them out of my portfolio case they were all yellowed...why? newsprint. ugh.

I once had an instructor who said, "Know the rules first, then choose which you want to break." So I went from realism to impressionism to abstract, from oil to acrylic to watercolor and what naturally follows, glass. You can plan, but the kiln sometimes has its own ideas. I love the surprises, usually.

I still paint, so don't kick me off of here. But I do love that glass.
jan

When I first start painting, I study the environment, the theme, meditate for a long time. Then I know that I will need about 2- 5 days of light and climate similar together in order to complete a painting.

I have used my entire dining room walls, looking out certain windows to get the different areas seen from on my property...there is a winter part comprised of deep fresh snow fallen on a field and by the ocean ( across the feid is the first house (small cabin like home) DH ever built, then the summer to fall picture is of a large sunflower bed and my pet farm animals. In ordert o get the lights and everything pleasing TO ME and MY STANDARDS I get in place to paint every day at the same time and work 3 hours before sunset as fast as I can attacking all the "problems" that the painting demands ( that grabbing the neck...it really resonates thanx roy you gave me a good chuckle)

On the paintings I have had to wait for the season to return and hope this year to be done with the works. It will be good to have the house back in full usage too! lol

My greatest problem is getting my family to respect this time and not be demanding on me...like I said this is the greatest problem for me as sometimes I need to depend on others to do what I need to escape from in order to meet the completion of this over 2 year painting. Also the painting is only worked on after a heavy fresh fallen snow and the first 2 weeks of October. Thats how it got started, I refuse to work from flat photos, so dont lecture me on that as I cant and wont deal with painting from photos( it takes the magic away from me it seems)

If I ever was to use photos, I would be inclined to inlarge and just trace the picture on and then paint it. But I will refuse unless onlocation mo longer is an option, and I dont see that ever happening.