Allowing paintings to be paintings

I recently had a realization while painting. I noticed that something about my mindset had changed in the studio. Something shifted that allowed me to move forward with a series of paintings that feel right, consistent, and coherent. What was this change? Why did it take so long to get here?

My new mindset is this: I’m not trying to work anything out on the canvas except for the paint itself. In the small 12″ x 12″ canvas panels I’m completing, I’m allowing myself to focus exclusively on the materials at hand. My questions are: How does this color work? What happens when I change the chemistry of my medium? What does more oil do? When should I be using zinc white instead of titanium?

My working questions are not: How does this painting relate to contemporary art right now? What do I have to say and how can I say it with this work? What current affairs are important to me and how do I express those issues through this work? Is this a figurative painting or an abstract one? (I believe the answers to these questions can only come later, often with the help of others.)

For far too long I was trying to work too much out within the confines of a painting. I was over-conceptualizing everything and, in the process of trying to be clever all of the time, I was forgetting how to paint. What’s more, it wasn’t fun. There was too much resting on the painting. It couldn’t just be a painting. It mattered too much.

Maybe as I continue to paint I will find a way to successfully make the physical object of the painting fully meld with the more conceptual issues that often serve as distraction. Perhaps this is slowly happening even though I’m not fully aware of it.

But right now I am letting myself re-discover and enjoy the importance of the materials, of the form, of color, and relationships on the flat plane. I’m just trying to really enjoy the paint and the process itself.

Quotes

“To be visible is to be present: to be absent is to be invisible. A voice, a perfume or something microscopic may be present and yet invisible, not because of its whereabouts but because of its nature. The function of painting is to fill an absence with the simulacrum of a presence.”

- John Berger in The place of painting

What is a Studio Box?

This blog is my studio box. A place to store and share all the stuff in my head that influences and informs my paintings.

For some time now, I’ve been asking my paintings to do too much. They had to contain all of my random musings, ideas, experiments with color, and personal issues. This sounds very romantic, but can make for some very confused paintings!

As a way to help me tighten my conceptual focus and make more intentional paintings, I decided to begin writing.

This blog is a space for me to work and record ideas, just like a studio is a space to get work done. It’s also a way to gather feedback and comments from others. I hope that if I can work out the conceptual big questions and influences here, then I can let my paintings be paintings.