Painting is about problem solving; kind of like one and one equals two.
That is to say, you work until problems are solved and the painting is in balance.
Problem Solving & Painting.
Greetings! Today I’d like to talk a bit about problem solving and painting. Not sure I’ve done so before. I will use today’s #30paintingsin30days acrylic study as an example.
Painting “Cycle”.
You see, its been my observation that painting has a sort of cycle. Its starts with a great idea, or maybe a spark of imagination.
Then, because it only happens when you get it on a piece of paper or canvas, you start to work. You lay out your design, block in shapes and lines. Work your value patterns and colors.
And, somewhere along the line, you start grooving to the process and just paint; you’re in the “flow”.
Still later, you realize you’re in the adjusting and fixing phase. That is to say, problem solving until all is resolved and the painting is in balance.
Balancing Act.
What I’m trying to describe in a round about way is that painting becomes a balancing act of adding then adjusting; acting then reacting; teeter and totter.
Natural & Intuitive.
In other words, problem solving. I think that when I’m in the flow of painting, the issues and resolutions of problem solving is intuitive and fast.
Example.
Problem: Subject and Ground Relationship. Take today’s painting, if you will. You see I’ve been working on it for awhile and have an issue: the background (ground) and the objects (subject) do not relate to each other. To clarify, ground is dark transparent paint; the subject is light opaque paint.
There is nothing wrong, per se, with a dark transparent background or a light, opaque subject. That is, if they relate to each other. So, how do I make them relate?
Option One. My first option was to use the same color of paint for background and objects. Oh; that was the state the painting was in.
Option Two. I could just paint the background medium to dark opaque colors. However, I’ve done that already; I’m in the mood to stretch my abilities.
Options Three. So, we work some transparent color on the objects. Woohoo!
Stretches the Imagination! Well, in the final version, it sort of looks like a cup of “hippy-dippy” psychedelic cappuccino. Really; maybe its the latest strawberry, white chocolate, caramel, blueberry, cinnamon, nutmeg, pineapple, pumpkin, lemon and lime mocha cappuccino, with sprinkles and wrinkles on top. Care to join me for a cup?
Reaching End State.
Back to one and one equals two: one blue plus one orange equals two colors.
More directly, problem solving is done when all parts of the painting are balanced. That is to say you can neither add nor subtract without changing everything. At this point, it is time to move on to the next painting. This problem is solved!