Color and Texture

I finished two paintings today!

The first was a painting I started last summer. I didn't do much at all to finish it - yesterday added in a layer of some stripey pyramid stone looking things, and today I painted the edges. It's interesting to reflect on my own painting "style" in context of some of the "research" I was doing this year in my independent study. One of the observations made by Dr. Rose was that Realism and Impressionism are connected philosophically by their preoccupation with the medium itself. Both seemingly contradictory movements are characterized by a primacy of material which evidences the belatedness of these styles. Anyway, the point is that I definitely embrace this primacy of materials. I am fascinated with the way that paint mixes, the texture of the acrylics, the three dimensional qualities that one can attain by heaping mounds of paint on a canvas. I wake up the next morning after I work on a painting, and the first thing I do is examine the previous day's work extremely closely with my nose inches away, touching all the interesting areas where the paint is textured. I love that particular tactile sensation. I'm interested in the way the canvas takes paint (there are even some brush strokes in this first painting that didn't fill in the entire canvas, but I find it very beautiful) and the way paint takes other paint. I like letting the materials do the work for me.

So here is my first painting, an abstract. It sort of makes me think of space and the Creation. I'm putting in pictures both of the entire canvas and of some interesting parts up close that I like. Too bad y'all can't really get the effect of the texture, it's my favorite element of acrylic painting.

Painting #1

Detail, cool blobs

Detail, nifty orb

Detail, demonstrating how I painted the edges of the canvases

Detail, more nifty brushstrokes

I think my dad is going to put this one in his office.

Below are some photographs of the second painting. I usually don't try to represent real things when I do arty stuff, but this scene is part of a really crazy dream that I had that resulted in a sort of compulsion to release the energy of it onto a canvas. The dream was so intensely vivid and with so many more details. I started wanting to put half of it in this one painting, but then I realized I could really only put about a twentieth of it in one painting, or it would be too much all at once. But the good news is, I have all this material in my head for several more paintings, if I so wish. Yay. But all in all, I'm pretty pleased with how they both turned out.

Painting #2

Detail, waves arriving at the shore

Detail, sky, the storm fading

Detail, horizon and a wave

Detail, the city in the distance

Anyway, mostly practiced Baroque oboe today. Read some of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Dr. Rose sent me a fantastic epistle in response to my response to Tom Jones. It's going to take a while to write a response...and of course every time he sends

me an email, he recommends about 10,000 pages worth of reading or 8 hours worth of listening...after JSMN (which he recommended earlier this year) (800 pages), I'll probably go for Clarissa (by Richardson) (one of the recommendations from the last email) (2,000 pages).

This post wasn't much about oboe playing I realize, but I hope y'all were interested anyway!

Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, and Acrylics

Today has been quite the fabulous day.

Got to work on my painting almost immediately after waking up. Scrounged around in the garage and found the easel and set everything up outside next to the pool. It was unbelievably hot outside, loved every second of it. Hooked up Naxos on my computer into the patio speakers and blasted recordings of Bach and Rameau featuring Harnoncourt and Leonhardt. I worked until the heat was unbearable, then I jumped in the pool. Perfect temperature. Not too cold that I had to ease my way in, but not uncomfortably tepid either. Got out worked some more, went back in the pool, etc. My mom came home after a while, but predictably, as soon as she put her bathing suit on, the clouds came out and the daily afternoon thunderstorm started threatening.

Moved back inside, and I've spent most of the rest of the day listening to the recordings of reed class and oboe class from BPI and taking notes on them. I've only made it through the first two days, but listening back has been so beneficial. First of all, to objectively see the progress that was made in such a short amount of time is really astounding. When I was actually working on learning the instrument that first week, it felt like I wasn't making any progress, like nothing good was happening. But looking back, I can hear all of the good things that were happening, and happening very quickly. I can hear myself fixing tons of tiny little details I probably didn't even consciously think about when I was playing the second time around. Secondly, I was noticing listening back how immediately and comprehensively I notice what was going on, which notes were sharp or flat, what musical critiques Marc was about to give in the recording. So...if I can hear that quickly and correctly listening to a recording, why I am not hearing that quickly and correctly when I am practicing? I mean, I do hear a lot. But not as much as just now when I was listening to the recording. The answer, I think, is that when I am practicing, I think way too much. I also care way too much. I think both of those things, overthinking and overcaring, get in the way of allowing my self to trust my ear and do its thing as it has been trained (overtrained in fact) to do. Etcetera etcetera.

Practiced Baroque oboe for a little while in between listening to the recordings. Was a good thing to do, with a lot of the basic info fresh in my mind. I'm still hung up on scales and long tones, but I really don't want to play music with less than fabulous support/technique/articulation.

Crazy thunderstorm this afternoon. I think lightning actually hit our roof at one point, I definitely heard something creak or crack.

I edited a clip of Kill Bill last night to make a reed making spoof, but then Facebook wouldn't let me upload it because of copyright infringement. Sad. Oh well, I'm probably the only one who would find it amusing anyway...