The patterned pot at the heart of this painting was part of my Arizona grandparents collection of art objects. They loved collecting art and art objects from reservations, galleries and roadside stands. I have so many summer memories of the heat and the desert. Red rocks and galleries. Huge rosemary bushes and the smell of vitamin C.
One particularly unfortunate moment was with a cholla cactus that looked soft and fuzzy to my child eyes and was instead a painful afternoon with tweezers and my chubby toddler palm. And many magical moments watching quail families trail along in winding lines.
This pot made it’s way to me. It’s signed on the bottom ‘Ol Bald Eagle' with a drawing of a feather and N.D. Marshall. Credit where credit is due to the artist who made this beautiful pot. The presence of this intricately patterned vase makes this painting one of those art within art pieces.
I’ve become more interested in pattern in my own work in general although the patterns I usually play with are light and organic rhythms. The regular repeating symmetry of the patterns on the pot felt like a musical counter point to the patterns in the worn wood table top.
This painting is a particular kind of still life set up where I layer objects in an outdoor environment and set about painting it with an eye to color development. I'm using my Cape School roots of examining color spots blended with my own ideas about developing my eye and expressing the perceptual experience over time. This involves a layering process that I think of as an open-weave kind of painting. Each layer informs the next. Certain early layers are preserved to shine through and each added layer builds character and depth to both the surface and the space.
Image: Progress shots
1. First day Drawing.
2. Block in also on the first day. I was super excited about the river of dark masses and the line on the table talking to the lines in the pot.
3. Larger development done on the second day of painting. Working all over trying to keep my eyes open to the whole. Day 3 not pictured. I spent much of the time trying to resolve the foreground yellow pot on the left to no avail. It was ultimately better to release it from the conversation.
4. On the last day I made some big shifts. Letting go of the yellow pot really opened up the space! I chose a shadow from the later end of the light window to keep my diagonal connection. It shifted the pattern from a river of darks winding through the painting to an open clamshell of shadow just touching the 3 dark anchors. It was an exciting time and I may have jumped up and down a little when I finally found it.
It's a little like life, isn't it?
My roots from childhood experiences and family in the West, layered with my early education with the Cape Cod School. They both inform me and my work. Those early influences are embedded in this painting. Certain things are preserved to be seen directly; the pot and parts of the painting procedure. Others are buried under the development of my interests and growth as an artist. All of it is woven together to make this painting.
