Clouds are meant to be fleeting, not confusing

It's not finished yet, though the more difficult parts are almost done.  That large space to the right is confusing to work on because there is no obvious reference to know where I'm laying my brush.  There's no tree, crest, line or obvious visual reference.  Another thing gnawing at my attention would be all that mental note I have on what to adjust, what to add, what to remove, that are strewn all across the frame.  I've fought the temptation to use Post-It to keep tabs of them all!  Other than those mentioned, it should be smooth sailing with this piece from here on end.

Though it is not the largest canvas I've worked on, it is the widest.  This canvas has given me more confidence to tackle more complex works, I'm happy to say.  I believe I've broken that paralyzing apprehension I've been getting whenever I look at the unfinished Kubol piece.  We'll get there, soon enough. 

This will look good in the master's bedroom.  I've made the painting to fit  the dimension of the wall facing the bed.  When I wake up, this will be the first thing that will greet me.  All I need now is a low and shallow book shelf, a small sound system, and some trinkets and bookends to complement that space under this painting.

After this - maybe a week or two more, I'll begin the last half of the roof scape painting I've put on hold a few weeks back.  I need references to keep on going with that piece.

Light as Clouds

I shouldn't take these paintings too seriously.  I should just learn to enjoy the moment and not bother about consequences.

The lighter I feel about working on these canvasses, the more likely I would be returning to them.

Yes, I should just make my strokes and smudges, oblivious of nighttime noises, listening to Mraz and whatever song shuffling will lead me to.

Gone Stupid with the Details

I usually paint at night.  I often lose touch of time when I start dabbing in the paint.  I'd blow past three hours and 4 cups of coffee and think I've only been working on a canvas for 30 minutes.  It's a great way to pass the time, and a darn efficient way to escape everything else in life.  Which reminds me, I have other important things to attend to outside of art!

In any case, I was contemplating last night how to resolve two conflicting aims I was having with regards this rooftop painting.  I needed to satisfy this impulse to paint in details.  Usually, if you want to focus on something, you paint in details.  If you want the eyes to flow across briefly but not focus on an area, you just make suggestive strokes, or lighten the tone, or as they say in Photography, just bring it out of focus.  These usually are not friendly to the eyes and a viewer will instinctively move his eyes away from these areas where the brain cannot satiate it's need for hard edged details.  But as what I have said, I was going crazy over the details.

I was wondering whether cluttering everything will force the eyes to move to the foreground where things are not as cluttered as the background because of perspective - where things are of course larger and therefore may seem not as cluttered as the back.

Or then again, I can always use heavy lines and frame a small section where the eyes and mind should focus on.  

Ah yes...and there goes the plan once again.

Humans or No Humans

This painting is coming along well.  It's not quite done yet.  The intended fluffiness and ephemeral quality of the 3 kinds of clouds depicted  has not been applied yet.  Frankly, I only have an inkling on how to execute it and i suspect it will take a number of layers to get the translucent effect I'm aiming for.  Good luck with that.

Because almost everything  is suggested given the freedom I allowed myself on the brush strokes, the viewer's eyes will wander aimlessly across the frame.  I needed an anchor of sorts where the eyes can begin and launch off towards the horizon, then follow a path back to a comfortable point of focus.  I'm torn between putting in a person, or just rendering with more details the light green grassy foreground on the lower left of the frame.  Either one, it will serve a good anchor.  But, choosing either one will alter the philosophy underpinning the painting.

I always maintain that nature cares not for man or our fate.  In fact, nature is not conscious of how she looks like, of how barren or verdant she might be.  Nature just exist and we are a complication in this grand scheme of just being.

I just want us to be out of the frame.  To be able to see and comprehend, but never covet, infect or destroy.

But without the manifestation of man within the frame, it is conceptually a lightweight anchor.  Humans are exasperatingly self-conscious and egomaniacal.  We are obsessed with our own kind and naturally gravitate towards another biped.  A human figure 1/10th the size of the frame is as heavy as the mountain - if not heavier.  We explore the figure not only with our eyes, but also with our minds.

So what will it be?

Distraction

I got distracted from working on the roofscape painting at the moment.  Since the areas I needed to work on were still “wet” and I needed to take reference images of scrawny kids first, I decided to start work on this mountain scape that I have in mind.  It will be part of a three-part series which I will call Guiting-Guiting.

The dimension of the frame was intended really for a somewhat mannerist painting of a woman, but the person that will pose for that had a falling out with me and that planned painting will no longer be feasible.  That falling out had some serious personal ramification for me, and as usual, I revert to the mountains for solace.

Gunning for GSIS

I've finally remembered that there is such a thing as a GSIS Art Competition and the due date for this year's competition hasn't passed yet.

The theme is “Makabagong Kinabukasan” (A New Kind of Future).

I have been contemplating a particular composition, but not for the theme above. However, having a theme allowed me to crystallized the work in my head in no time, and led me in this direction. The moment my lead touched paper, all the elements came together without a fuss. I was pretty amused by the speed in which I arranged my elements.

I wanted to show a landscape of haphazardly built structures – a squatter roofscape. It has come to symbolize in my head everything that has gone wrong with the Philippines. It is a patchwork of temporary and flimsy attempts to build a community. It serves it's purpose marginally, but it simply is wanting of so many things: justice, order, direction.

I didn't want to show a living person amid the squalor. You will not see a single Filipino in the picture because this landscape is not Filipino. It is not what we are. It is just a predicament we have found ourselves in. It is a mere situation. There is even what appears to be a classical structure of sorts, but you will find it almost built over by the corrugated sheet iron structures surrounding it. A person should wonder what else is underneath all that rusted corrugated iron sheets. Will it reveal our true selves?

The only human form in the roofscape is the image of a construction worker wielding a sledgehammer in a tarpaulin banner. I'm just suggesting it, but in my opinion, the only way to move forward is to rid ourselves of things we have become comfortable with. We have been so used to the dysfunctions, that we are bewildered by reactions of visitors to our shores.

I gave the painting horizon gaps which should make the viewer feel that beyond the roofs, is a large open space - perhaps a beach of sorts. You should notice that the sky seems overly “nice” for the scene at the foreground. I just what the viewer to see my idea of hope. Beyond all that mess, is what we've all been working for. We just have to wield that sledgehammer with the conviction that it will demand.

The image above is about 60% complete.  It's not that easy to render rusted corrugated iron sheets without making it look like an absolute mess. 

This is my first painting after a year's hiatus!  Rock climbing had messed up my hands.  I can't control them as well as before.  It forced me to feather my brush strokes and I am mystified by the results.

UPDATE:

The new GSIS Painting Competition size requirement is 4 feet by 5 feet.  Last year it was 3x4 and I assumed wrong or perhaps read wrong.  I will not have any entry this year.  What a let down.

Now that the theme doesn't apply anymore, I feel that I may have to rethink the elements in my frame and go back to my original concept of having a thin kid balancing on the rooftops - a play on juxtaposition.

What's that?

Do you know what this is?

  

Not my finger!  I was talking about what I was pointing at.  Yup.  A blank canvas.  And I have two for that matter.

I had the frames for these custom-made by Sunga.  Cost me a thousand pesos for the two.  A bit pricey, but I can't really complain given the weight of the wood and the quality of the workmanship.  I use to make my own frames but my skills in carpentry can't overcome my usual problems: warping, usual flimsy construction and the ever annoying trapezoidal shape I end up with.

We're trying to work out a solution to bring down the price of the frame.  Some of the cheaper wood are just not workable as frames.  I told the people at Sunga if they can bring my 3x4s to P300, then we're dandy.

Yes, I do my own stretching, priming, sanding and whatever else that is necessary to come up with a nice consistent bite on the surface.  I think of it as part of the creative process.  Before you can paint anything, you have to create space for your other creations to exist in.

Wonder what's going to be pulled out of the air and plastered on these white surfaces?  Well, do come back every now and then to find out.  One of them is due on May 7!  I may have to use those spray on varnish for that.  Damn!