Most of the time, the titles for my paintings are pretty straightforward. They have, at times been descriptive of the place that was the inspiration for the piece, or the time of day, or a particular effect that I wanted to convey. And, sometimes I have made attempts at being clever, (but not too often, as it can get old ) .I have also been gulity of arbitrarily using variations of a similar theme, usually when I need to get several pieces ready for a show, and I hadn't really given much thought to naming all of the selected pieces. After all, how often can I use " Late Afternoon Light" ?
Lately, however, when I start a new work, I've been writing down the core ideas for the painting. In other words the key elements that are so deeply moving to me.
Here is a very recent piece, inspired by my memories of a very humid, early summer morning in a place that I know quite intimately.
I was feeling nostalgic for the familiar rural corners of the Hudson Valley, and the rich " amber golden " light that is so typical of a warm, hazy summer morning. So, I looked through my photos while in my studio in the arid Southwest where I currently live and work, and came upon an image of a rustic barn, bathed in early morning light.
I used a new surface, Canson " Touch", that I have been wanting to try, and went for a full sheet of a light umber color. the surface is very much like that of the Art Spectrum papers.
As I did my prep work, which is almost always a value/ compositional study, in pencil, I thought of descriptive terms, and wrote them down. Many of them I've already used here...like hazy, warm , golden, nostalgia, humid...
I kept thinking of a phrase that I've heard in a song ( which for the life of me I can't remember the name of the artist, but it's such a great tune ) ....honey dripping from the trees. This describes perfectly the feeling I was after in this pastel. It was interesting that the act of writing down the qualities that I wanted to convey I think actually helped me keep on track in my execution. I didn't get carried away with a tight rendering of every bush and board that was in the photo. The painting is about the light and humid haze.
And so, here is " Honey Dript Morning", pastel, 20x26.
