Blog

I wanted a companion piece to Socialist Surrealism which I painted this year from an old drawing. I had prepared a canvas a while back with the borders blocked out for it. Interesting. The paintings are done in the same style but with the first one being done in a slower, more controlled manner. Saturday night I went after the second one painting in a more furious way. I sort of just threw myself at it. I think the second one is a better painting, but not necessarily because of the intensity with which I tackled it. I think with art it's always a balance between working on skills and letting go completely. I lot of people said they like Somber Fruit but I don't think it's a terribly good painting. I was too scared when I painted it and I think it's too controlled. You can see that in it. But on the other hand you can't be just letting go all the time.

I've lost a lot of my watercolor skills while I've been working in acrylics. For this reason I'll go back to watercolor class this spring.