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Spiderbelle? pastel on Wallis sanded paper, 16x10 |
A germ of an idea from last month. When I was clearing my workshop of spiderwebs I realized I always open my mouth when I look up. My mother called this posture "catching flies." I thought of painting it but there are many paintings of people looking up screaming--scrap that one. From that idea to this painting:
1: A woman looking up, open-mouthed, holding a broom. 2: Add the fan and a spider web. 3: Which fan? We have 3-blade fans w/lights, 5-blade w/o lights, and 4-blade w/o lights--make one up. 4: Draw it with pastels on Wallis sanded paper (a new experience). 5. Decide that one of the fan blades should mirror the angle of the lifted arm. Erase the whole drawing with triangular sponge makeup thingys. 6. Find a lifted arm--found one in a 1946 book, The Dance--right arm of Isadora Duncan. Close the book and imagine the arm. 8. Remember the beginning of the TV show "Zorro." Can I get a "Z" in here--from the fan blade/broom/arm? 8. Tape the paper to a foam board, find some rubbing alcohol, get the Holbein pastels out of the workshop and go to the YMCA for Thursday (today) art. 9. Use the Holbein pastels for wall and ceiling; realize they're OIL pastels--retrieve the soft pastels from the car. Carry on with alcohol and pastels.
I like it. Now I'm deciding--
Add clothes? Facial features? Hands? Spider webs hanging from fan? Or, just work on the broom handle and call it finished?
FYI: I paint like I sculpt--build a nude, then add clothes. No, this is definitely not a self-portrait--it's not even my arm.