painting: The Stranger

[helenic]

Another Friday afternoon painting. It's a good habit for me to get into: I'm bored of work by Friday, so doing a new, smallish painting is much more interesting and engaging than plodding on through the same projects I've been working on all week. It sets a strict time limit (since I normally have plans on Friday evenings), which is a good exercise because I tend towards the ambitious and perfectionistic, and a finished project is a wonderful way to start the weekend. Both this and last week's have been in my new sketchpad of primed paper, which is also strangely helpful. In my head painting on canvas is big and hard and complicated and time-consuming. Painting in a sketchpad is somehow psychologically liberating - it doesn't mean the result is worse, just that I'm in a more experimental headspace, I'm not hung up on being perfectly realistic, or sensibly commercial, I can just play with ideas. This week's idea is colour. I suspect this might be a recurring theme.

Click on the image for bigness. This is for sale as usual; email me (helenic at gwydion dot net) or comment if interested - SOLD

The Stranger

Oil on Primed Paper, 10 x 14"

Some notes:

- I had the idea for this painting in bed on Tuesday night; it arrived as all my ideas do, whole and detailled and without explanation, leaving me only to mentally zoom in on the image and work out what's going on in it. In this case, I'm still not sure. Is it a latecomer to the party? Is it Death? Is it a Jedi? Who can tell?

- I'm not happy with the shadow figures. Originally the idea was to represent the distortion effect you get with shadows, making them elongated and faint at the edges, but after I'd got the yellows and oranges perfect I was loathe to start trying to blend black into them, so the shadows stayed solid. Plus they turned out thicker than I'd planned, and without ruining the colours underneath I couldn't undo any brushstrokes. So now they look more like symbols of people or cavepaintings than realistic shadows. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

- The sky is upside down, and I didn't realise this until afterwards: the treeline should be in silhouette, and the horizon should be light blue/teal, darkening to indigo at the zenith. Maybe it's pre-dawn? Or maybe it's just REALLY TRIPPY (I prefer to call this "magic realist").

- There are lots more tiny stars at the top that didn't show up once I shrank the scan. Boo. You'll have to imagine them.

- This painting reminds me a bit of the art of lisafalzon, who is one of my favourite artists and who (unlike me) uses bright colours a lot. So, thankyou Lisa for being so consistently and imaginatively groundbreaking, and I hope you aren't offended. It wasn't conscious, I've just looked at your paintings a lot - it would have been difficult for you to have avoided influencing me entirely :)

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

That's really lovely; I really like what you've done with the sky.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! Do you mean the upside-downness or the stars? I'm liking stars a lot at the moment. Currently planning a load of colourful semi-abstracts based on Hubble photos :)

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

That's lovely. It's hard to tell whether the robed figure is observing or creating. Beautiful!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The robed figure seemed to me to be waiting, but creating is a stunning thought. I love it when I paint random stuff, and people look at it and turn it into beautiful ideas :)

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I really love this! I probably can't buy it because of cash flow problems, but could you let me know what kind of price you'd be looking for just in case?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! I was hoping for about £50? the_elyan has already emailled me (I'm quite stunned by how quickly people have expressed interest, actually), so he has first refusal. But if he doesn't want it for some reason and that price seems reasonable, it's yours :)

[mr_magicfingers]

Meant to drop you an email, was in CCK this week and they are displaying paintings for artists. Obviously, given the nature of the establishment, they tend towards the erotic. Having seen your work, it's way ahead of much of what they display. Wondered if perhaps it might be an idea to have a chat with them about perhaps displaying some of your work at some point. Might be a place you could sell stuff for a reasonable cost.

I like this one by the way, I actually like that the sky is reversed, I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it, I just thought it looked rather good.

xxx

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Mm, I've thought about displaying art in CCK before ... it would involve doing erotic paintings, though. I have a big "unborn paintings" database on my computer and very few of them are erotic - I find a lot of erotic/fetish art somewhat predictable, to be honest. I'm potentially interested in doing narrative D/s paintings at some point, but in the meantime the only reason I'd do fetish art now rather than my other projects is for commercial reasons, and doing lots of really big paintings for an exhibition, which then may or may not sell, is a big financial risk when I have other projects in the meantime which are more commercially viable.

In other words - I knew that CCK exhibited fetish art, and have been planning to do fetish art for a while anyway (if nothing else, so I can build up a client base within the scene, since I meet so many people through my other work), but it's not very high on my list of priorities.

By "reasonable cost" do you mean "drastically overpriced to cover their enormous cut"? Cause one of the reasons I'm not pushing to get an exhibition is to avoid losing a slice of my earnings to a gallery, and another reason is that galleries, like the property market, believe in taking the piss with pricing, selling things for as much as they can possibly get away with. I don't believe in underselling other artists, but I do believe that original art should be sold for what it's worth, which is less than most galleries sell it for. I'd much rather be my own merchant for as long as I can.

[oakwonder.livejournal.com]

Hands up anyone who's actually seen a real night sky with stars recently enough to carp. In any case, I think one of your icons is of Empire of Lights, so there's good precedent.

The shadows look like mimi (http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=mimi+aboriginal&btnG=Search) spirits, on holiday a long way from home.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

But Empire of Light doesn't have a night sky, that's the point of it! Anyway, having the lighter sky at the top looked right at the time, which is why I did it that way, so I'm sure people won't mind.

Mmmm, that's exactly the kind of thing I was referencing. I think I had the shadow theatre which Artaud writes about in my head, among other things.

[twi-light.livejournal.com]

I like! Especially like the figures inside the tent. Bring back memories of good nights at summer festivals :-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes! I'm glad you like it :)

[kissycat1000.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. I do hope that at some point your random Friday paintings take a grey feline sort of direction. While I don't feel rich enough to comission a 'proper' painting, little ones like this are very appealing. :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

If you want to commission a cat painting, feel free. I confess that I'm very unlikely to do any otherwise :) What's your budget?

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

I love your magic realist sky.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Hee, thankyou! Artistic licence forgives many errors ;)

[matt13.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful painting! Especially the black figures against the bright orange.

I think the robed figure has been excluded from the ritual, he's lonely but still watches and waits.

:-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Really glad you like it, thankyou :) The figures are apparently very controversal!

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

i think this painting is strange. i love the background and the robey man but the tent and figures look all 2d and weird. like the tent has been plonked on top of the background.

the stars are really gorgeous. and the trees. but the tents kind of jars. but i have a very odd sense of art i think. i think i am just anti-orange. (and maybe once i have a house to put one in i will ask you to paint a washy Ico-inspired painting for me. that would be so cool.)

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the tent/shadows as some sort of thought-projection thing created by Mr Robe. It doesn't fit with the background and the rest because it's fundamentally other.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Mmm, thanks for these comments. I think the 2Dness is one of the reasons I was unsure about the figures myself - had I managed to realise the original picture in my head, they'd have looked like something more along these (http://www.gwydion.net/~melusine/nexus.bmp) sort of lines, but I didn't.

Ico as in this (http://www.icothegame.com/en_GB/index.htm)?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I like it, though I can't say why.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

PS. *waves*, hello, pleased to meet you. I don't know if we've met, I came to your party to end all parties to see everyone else.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Oh that's *gorgeous*. I love it. :-)

Erm, yes. Are you wanting to exhibit at all in the next year or so? I've already put in a good word for you with the foh manager at the Orange Tree - we exhibit a different artist in the Attenborough room (where people drink their drinkies that's not the bar) for each show. He's always on the look out for new artists, our clientele includes some rather wealthy people (being Richmond) and I believe the commission taken if we sell anything for you is unusually small. We've been known to sell things straight off the wall in the interval of a play, apparently. :-)

Anyhoo. John told me that if you want to send him a portfolio anytime, or call in/phone up for a chat, then this would be a good thing.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I am wanting to exhibit, theoretically, but it depends on a) having time/money to do non-commissioned paintings, and b) not selling them on LJ the same day I finish them :) Feel free to point John at http://wax-and-wane.org; I don't have a printed portfolio, and I'm unlikely to be able to afford one before the new year.

But yes! This sounds like a fantastic opportunity, and thankyou so much for thinking of me :)

[dakeyras.livejournal.com]

The first thing that struck me when I saw it was that the robed figure looked very much like Destiny of the Endless. The second thought, of course, was that he didn't have his book, which spoilt the effect of it actually being him but didn't destroy the underlying concept. As such it struck me that he was just watching, not unhappy at not being able to participate in the merriment but dispassionate, and waiting to make sure that the next chapter in the story of the tent-dwellers would proceed as it was fated.

As such, the dwellers themselves are entirely oblivious to his presence, and this is just as well, as were they to see him and recognise him then it would not only have a dampening effect on their joy but it might cause a divergence from their destined path.

I'm caught up, not only in wanting to know what the next chapter of their story is but also what the story has been up to this point. What's so important that the embodiment of Fate feels it necessary to take such a personal interest?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by the narratives people are seeing in this image. I don't know what it means. My guess was that the robed figure had arrived, but the tent-dwellers hadn't noticed him, yet - he's waiting for them to notice he's there, and when they do, everything will change. Your guess is as good as mine, though :)

And surely everything is important to Destiny? It seems to me that if the tent does represent life/creation, it represents the very normality of its beauty?

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Gosh, you were right about the stars. The sky fairly teems with them...