JLNobody's Painting

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Birth is wonderful.

Have any of you seen Judy Chicago's Birth Project: paintings and needle work?

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Osso Night at the edge of town is very emotional for me as well although I am not quite sure why. Wathcing the end also haunts me and in a way reminds me of Rothko.

I like them all but Parent with Children is the one that got my attention the most - I can't really say why but is as if taken into a trance by the colors and the background, it's great, I really like it!

Night on the edge of town is great as well, even tho, makes me a bit sad for some reason.

Great pieces JLN!

Thanks, Ray. I did not think anyone would actually single out "Parent With Children" for appreciation. It's a bit cropped on the right side, but I like its reproduction here.

Is NIGHT ON THE EDGE OF TOWN for sale? It's gorgeous.

Rayvatrap, I love your animated kokopelli avatar.

Cinnesthesia. Thank you, but it was sold, for practically nothing, about three years ago. I consider your inquiry just as as good as a sale, as far as my poor little ego is concerned.

Thank you Cinnesthesia - I got it from the A2K Avatar Gallery!
I like yours, is cool!

JLN - I like it a lot, I think is very intriguing, you have to pay close attention to the details on it. How did you get the background, is interesting - is it oil on canvas?

Ray, I assume you are asking about Parent with Children. That is acrylic on canvas (16X20"). The background is done with the mouths of jars, dipped in the paint and pressed on the canvas. I wanted the rough, sketchy effect that the circular shapes. Jars were perfect. I notice that the ryhthm of this painting is not dissimilar from some of your paintings; that may be part of the unconscious reason it appealed to you.
The Night on the Edge of Town, is charcoal on paper, of course. It's an example of how I do the human figure only from memory. I try to get the essential features of the human figure without focus on details or realistic representation--just essences.

They are both really nice and I think you are right, that must be the reason why I am so attracted to "Parent with Children". Most of my paintings have a spheric element - don't really know why now that I think about it!

Now, Night at the Edge of Town is very interesting and there is something sort of mysterious about it, they are all very nice.

Night on the Edge of Town, JL. I'm in my black and white mode. Awesome!

Thanks, Letty. I have lots of charcoal drawings. That's how I resumed art work after decades away. Now my passion has become color and painterly effects. I don't seem to be as sloppy as I would like. It takes considerable courage to trust the paint and reduce one's tendency to control. Control is fear.

JL, I don't understand the argot, but I'll take your artistic word on the paint and control. Must confess that it seems a bit cryptic.

JL, we were just talking about this relative to monoprints today. (The artist this month does monoprints mostly about his life in baseball; they're really good.) His work shimmers with something like brownian motion, has a bit of room for accident along with the control - both happening at the same time. I've never done monoprints past some one-class very primitive exercise in them. Have you?

Me? Monoprints? No way. Too technical. As I said before I'm still getting used to the ball point pen. But, Letty, from Osso's comments about accident and control, you should get a handle on my meaning. I like to let things happen. If they are not aesthetically satisfying, I paint over them. If they are good, I keep them. The argot most appropriate here is "serendipity."

Thanks, JL. Now I understand. Painting is like poetry--with or without the prosody.

While all the paintings are quite impressive, I'd have to say "Battle Scene" is my favorite.

Here's what goes through my mind when I look at it: I see a tortured soul battling his way through a sea of Ents, struggling to find the one solitary blackened tree and fragmented farmhouse which appeared on the cover of one of Hemingway's novels. A Farewell to Arms, I believe.

Is that what you were thinking while you painted, JL?

I think I'm doing a pretty good job of crawling into your mind.

mmm I like Birth and Night on the Edge of Town best. Well done Joanne for getting this thread going. Charcoal is a lovely medium and there is a real luminosity to it.

Monprints aren't technical or difficult - they are beautifully free and painterly and lovely accidental things happen - I love doing monoprints.

I was actually doing monoprints today. I'm a member of the local print workshop and went in to use the printing press, I'm working on some prints of trees - well tree trunks and the various bark patterns. You can do monoprints by hand without a press, though they are better with a press.

I've got to get back in again soon to print some collagraphs I've done, i varnished them with shellac today and so they are ready to ink up and print, if i have time i may go tomorrow as i am dying to see how they have worked out.

Printmaking does take time! Still if they have worked I can get several prints from them, all different.

What are you working on at he moment jln?

Vivien, thanks for the information on Monoprints. I must try it someday; your comment about the painterly effects interest me. Right now I'm trying to finish a good number of paintings (nine to be inexact: a few I may just gesso over and start fresh). My problem is the fear of ruining something that I think has some value but is not finished yet. I'm sure that's a common problem. I have little or no problem getting started. Indeed, I can't wait, usually, to start my next painting(s). But how to know when to stop. Wow, that's tough. I sometimes continue to work on a painting even after it's framed. Go figure. Rarely satisfied.

Gus. You didn't get into my head--this time. But no matter. I like your interpretation just as well as mine. The viewer is just as much a part of the painting as is the painter. What I was seeing while working on that pastel was a menacing (large black) sinister tree with grotesque "arms" (branches)--like the tree in the last Harry Potter film (yes I saw it, and I enjoyed it; so there). It was threatening the smaller trees which were in a kind of rebellion against the evil black tree. The major opposition came from the red-ish tree. Notice the feminine shape and carriage of the red tree. It is almost a feminist work, with females rebelling against a male bully. In any case that's how the meaning unfolded while I was working on the painting. I did not have that idea in the beginning. I just wanted to see if I could do a dramatic tree with texture in its trunk and roots. Then the story emerged. That's often how it works out for me. I don't have stories to tell. Stories appear to me while working.
My God, guys. Thanks for the attention.

very true. Most of the painting is done fast - it's the last part that takes the most time for the fewest marks. A lot of time looking and thinking what next. Yes, do try monoprinting.