Work in progress

I'm making progress with my two erotic landscape paintings, after what seems an interminable age of nothing happening (to me, at least!). I now have a clearer idea of what dj kirkby wants for her erotic landscape, and separate to that I have now had the initial sketch ok'd of the other painting of the New York skyline so I'm ready to start painting it. And itching to get going on it!! The image has strong horizontal lines, broken up with strong vertical lines within the centre third of the painting. The viewers eye sees these strong geometric lines and is happy. But, hidden within the painting are the more rounded shapes of two lovers, she on top of him, he prone below her. It will be obvious, when you see them, as to what they are doing, and yet, it will take the eye a while to see them, as they will be painted in a subtle way, using the same colours as the buildings they are superimposed over. And whilst the contrast of the buildings will be stronger than the contrast in the couple, they will be hidden. This sketch is only a simple version, the finished painting will be brighter, with more depth of colour and contrasts in it. But it takes a while to find the couple, even so.

There's so much to do when starting a new painting - there's the initial idea, the thought process of how to convey that idea on paper, the thumbnail sketches to complete the thought process, choosing the right medium - whether watercolours will be better for their fluidity and movement, or whether oils or acylics would be better for the brighter and stronger colours and the ability to overpaint. Then the layout of the image on paper, making any final adjustments to that. THEN the actual applying of paint can start! (this is why I say that to produce a painting, nine tenths of it is the thinking part, and only a tenth is the actual painting, no matter how difficult it is to paint). And whilst I'm painting, I'm still thinking, still trying to work out if things could be better improved with the addition of something, or the deletion of something else, whether to change the colours, or add a dash of interest somewhere else. And I know when its actually finished when I look and look at my painting and can find absolutely nothing to improve upon. Then its done!

I was talking to an artist friend over the weekend, who I have not seen for a few months, and she was asking what projects I'm currently working on - so I told her about the two "erotic landscapes" and went into detail about how I was going to do them, and what was involved. She knows the two paintings are going to be a challenge to do, and made the comment that as an artist you're selling part of your soul. And I know what she means - we are producing part of what makes us artists, the creativity that is so deeply ingrained within us, that we have this need to create and produce artwork, and we advertise it for the world to see. Its like showing part of your inner self. And she asked me, where do you begin to put a price on that...................?