painting a picture
painting a picture of me n eve on a boat
sailing outta sydney
yeah yeah yeah
me n eve are relatively easy
evies characteristic eyebrows n eyes
her thick curly hair being blasted back by the wind
she grimaces almost as the boat moves thru the chilly air
me..i got my raybans on standing behind her
all well n good
the city in the distance
yeah
represented by a few vertical splodges of pastel
give em some windows n some doors
give em some light on one side
some differences in height
try to make it seem that some buildings are behind others
i guess thats the trick
to imply depth
to imply life
to imply a complete story
if this painting ever hangs on a wall
and if people ever stop to ponder it
it should have a few things up its sleeve
a few surprises
some eye candy
some inspired technical prowess
some different looking surfaces
i’m not sure what any of this will be yet
i’m just trusting in the process
(new agers can call this the universe)
i believe the process will reveal bit by bit
a map of how to complete the painting
i will muddle away until i think of something
now not having done lots of skies
n not too many seas
i see
how hard skies are
n how much even harder is the sea…or water generally
at first i had a pastel sea
my sea was green n grey n white pastel
swirled together “intuitively” to look like the sea
it didnt look anything like the sea
there were some nice patterns
soft patterns
the pastels can be smudged around with yer finger
some really juicy creamy ones will go a long way
you just move it all about with your fingers
go out n buy yourself some pastels nice paper
n a little soft rubber (thats eraser to you, mr humphries)
rub the pastel about on the paper
now put your finger in it
and smear it around
now take yer eraser n rub it away
oh ho
you see
you can rub into it
you can adjust how much you wanna take away
by how much pressure you apply to eraser
et voila
i reckon this is the easiest way to do a painting there is
but
yet
my sea was lacking
bigtime
my sea did not look like the sea in photo i’m painting from
my sea was kinda mellow
the real sea was choppy n sharp
with this certain pattern of light n shade n waves n ripples
that characterizes the sea definitively
i was failing to get in the hard egdes n sharp shadows
the pastel couldnt/wouldnt give it
picking up a slightly wrong sized paintbush
and after having fixed the pastel
i attempted to paint in some choppiness
the marine blue dried much lighter than it had looked
the shadows became too colourful
they were the wrong shape
why did i have the wrong sized paintbrush
in the mess of my room
i couldnt find the right sized one
a tiny little transparent detailer
i picked up another strange brush
one i have only recently begun to use
a long thin brush with very few hairs
i tried to do some white foam
i had the white gouache paint quite watery
i naively hoped it would form some watery pattern
but it just looked kinda messy
n unlike the sea
which was quite precise
you can stare at the sea or a photo
for ages n ages
but it wont mean you can crack the code of its pattern
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
you can stare at the sea but can you paint it?
my long thin brush had wrecked the havoc
i even tried some iridescent pastel
hoping you know
it would glitter like the water
but nope
and it schmeared all over the place
coating everything in a dull unsealike razzle
i decided to paint the whole sea in
marine blue with a little black
to darken it up
(im sure thats not a good way to do it)
so i fixed it
got out a big thick brush
splodged it on
covered it up
a greenish blueish solid thing
well yes
this has potential
the sky is all soft shapes
mauvey grey n lemon yellows
let the sea be hard…or something
my eyes fall on a paintbrush i hadnt ever used before
about 4 years ago i got a set of brushes as a present
some i still had not got around to using
this one is the opposite of the the long thin one
its got a fan shaped wedge with numerous stiff little hairs
(simmer simmer)
i paint a little patch of marine blue on some olde cardboard
i put the strange brush in some white
and in up n down strokes i do a naive wave formation
it looks good on the cardboard but alas
on the big patch of sea on my painting it looks rotten
and thats where it stands right now
i gotta consider the sea some more
work harder on understanding its pattern
its very elusive

steve klee-bee