I’m posting a long form video documenting the making of one of my paintings to see how it will work on this site. The short video I posted a few days ago worked just fine. And I liked the way it displayed on this site. I’d like to see if this site has any advantages over You Tube, regarding video display. The one thing that’s obvious, is that here you get to write about things more, play with thoughts more. Loading time kinda sucks here, but then it does on You Tube as well, but it’s a super big file! I tend to load long videos late at night, leave the computer running during loads, and go to bed.
In this video, I’ve shown all the time the brush is on the surface, and I simply edited out all the paint mixing time.
I don’t really expect many people to watch this video. It’s long and all it shows is the brush on the surface..step by step towards the conclusion. However, I get quite a lot out of watching these things…..they tell me a lot about how I go about this business of painting…….I get a chance to analyze my decisions minute by minute, the large ones and the small ones. And it’s a chance to examine my assumptions, that might otherwise remain mostly submerged, because being involved in the painting process, in the moment, puts all your attention on very practical, immediate, physical things.
So…watch a few minutes…and don’t feel compelled to go through the whole thing. And if you DO go through the whole thing, I think you should get a prize!
There is a lot of going forwards and backwards near the end of the video. Some paintings are harder to resolve, for various reasons. But….all paintings are resolvable. There is always a solution to bring the piece to a close. I don’t really have rejects…I finish and keep them all. BUT….I do have things that are not intended to be finished in one go….they are just little painted passages that might be used later, for collages…..or they are meant to just sit there and trigger thoughts….I leave them lying out in the open, but not properly displayed.
I do a lot of inventing in my processes, and this sometimes leads to surprising results. For example a few new series of finished paintings have resulted from leaving these half painted ‘doodles’ out in the open. The paintings on thin paper laid onto panels started this way, and now that is one of my favourite ways of working.
The 2 photos below are examples of these painted doodles, left out for contemplation, to be used in some way later, or not.
A Long Version Video....Showing Every Step of the Painting 'Prison Hill'