Painting Quickly in Seattle

I created a 24" x 24" oil painting Tuesday night using a direct painting method handed down to artists by the Impressionists. I've been working with Barbara Fugate at Gage Academy in Seattle for the last couple years to study this approach.

This style of painting suits me quite well because it leverages my natural inclination to render images with gusto!

The image to the right is the piece in the  early stages when I have some simple goals: cover the canvas with paint as quickly as possible, employ an intentional strategy with my color use (in this case reds and violets) and block out shadow and light (forgetting about the form in front of me) in simple forms.

The painting was completed in two and a half hours (with model breaks it's probably a little under two hours of actual painting.) I mention the time only to give you a sense of what it feels like to paint something this way with no under-painting as a guide and little time to think. Direct painting is reactive. One quickly lays in a color in various places on the canvas and steps back to see the effect. Then the mind races: how to fix, how to retain a perfect mark, what to do next.

 

Detail shot:

Comments

[JimH]

I love to see works in progress like this. Direct Painting sounds like jazz on a canvas. No time to over think.

[Robin Troy]

ah, my dear, the perfect analogy. I remember that you said that you rarely play a jazz piece the same way twice. I didn’t realize until now that’s how I paint, too. Sometimes I get swept up in realism (technique), other times distortion (style.) Lines one day, shapes the next. Direct painting is also known as Expressive painting (seems apt, no?) but let’s coin a new term and call it Jazz painting instead. Conjures up all sorts of imagery for me.