Alan Bateman: painting

Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Brush

So far this is the only brush I have used for this painting. It's a fan brush that I cut slightly flat across the top.

Monday, February 16, 2009

I am just a few hours in to starting a painting, I have a love hate relationship with this stage. I sometimes feel like it's never going to come together, and then when I stand way back, I feel a little relief.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Pumpkin 3 (finished)

Now the pumpkin is done, and off to Argyle Gallery in Halifax tomorrow. I try to find that balance between detail and freshness. I guess that is code for areas that are painted quickly and have the feeling of realism while still allowing bold brush strokes show through.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Painting Stages

I would not post an unfinished painting on my alanbateman.com web site, but I know some people are interested in what the process looks like. I will post a start-to-finish series of photos at a later point, but here is a shot of a pumpkin that has about 4 hours work on it. My work usually looks good very fast, and then looks bad for quite some time. Once I get close to finishing it I start to like it again. So this piece is not quite half done, that doesn't mean it will only take me another 4 hours to finish it, it means that as far as refining it I am only half way there.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

New Painting

"Spring" 20 x 36 in. Acrylic on Board
I have just finished this painting, it's out on approval at the moment with the paint just dry. It's the first painting I have done of Lily. We have a very large swing attached to a high maple branch. It feels a bit like you are up in the trees.

Artists Statement (under duress)

I usually do not write long expiations regarding any one piece of my art. I am a not a writer. The paintings, at least in my genera, are the message. If you don=t relate to them any enlightenment on my part will only help you develop a more academic understanding of why I paint. As with many artists of all disciplines my inspiration comes from living. There is a cyclical nature to my life. I am not sure if my art inspires my life or if my life inspires my art. The parts of my life that translated in to paint always leave me with a better understanding of how I see.

There are certain things that are missing from my work. This has only recently occurred to me. In a subtle way they lack any marks of modernity. I would not paint a traffic sign, or a cd player. I may even edit out hydro lines. I now know why I had an unconscious need to portray things this way. It has to do with a kind of visual literacy. It seems that you use a different part of your brain for reading symbols, and putting them in context, than you do for just experiencing something. A stop sign has a message, you can=t not read it. For me this interferes with a pure experience. Although timelessness is not an intentional component of my work, it seems to be there. I don=t feel that this is an overly contrived way of painting. It just happens to be how I see my surroundings.

My ideas come from my life. I may be out side pruning a fruit tree, as well as various other things over the course of months or even years. I am always open to situations that may reveal them selves as potential painting ideas. Fortunately, for my sanity, and unfortunately, for my prolificacy, this process takes some time. If I spent all day at the easel, there would be no influx of experiences. And if I didn’t=t paint I wouldn’t=t have the intimate parts of my life revealed to me.

Although it sounds odd, some of my paintings seem to complete themselves. One of the most difficult parts of painting is knowing when to stop. I will leave a painting when it is close to being completed, and just look at it over several days. It doesn’t=t really change, but I do. There may be a few spots that need finishing, however other areas may have been completed with in the first few minutes of work.