March Post

I have been in the studio again after a long road trip out west to see one of my children. I love the west and all the many landscapes you encounter on the trip out there. Let no one fool you Texas is a BIG state and it takes a while to cross it. I thought I would blog on a piece I painted a year ago. It is called The Gossips for obvious reasons. I am just unendingly intrigued with the manipulation of paint on different surfaces. I have become increasingly involved with trying all manner of paints on all manner of surfaces. The effects you can attain are almost always unique and completely unexpected. There is a certain patina that evolves as you work the paint in layers on a surface. This painting is on Yupo paper which is a synthetic paper that has a very slick surface that does not absorb the pigment. Thus enabling you to layer color in transparent layers that read much like stained glass, the only catch is that when you agitate the underlayers they have the ability to lift completely, leaving you with a white surface again. This is very interesting and I like to use the slick surface of the paper as a reductive type of painting surface. In other words I like to remove and lift parts and textures to create interesting shapes of texture and color, that I build into recognizable images in my paintings. I reduce the pigment layer to create my lighter passages and use more heavy pigmented layer to create my dark passages. In the above painting, the hands shapes are the most important in this piece as they convey the lyrical movement that happens when people share thoughts and information with each other. I can then layer more color on top of these passages, giving me even more ways to create my paintings. I have found the when I paint many layers I can sand and distress the surface and then layer again and get unbelievable patinas and textures to work with in my paintings. I often find this manipulation is the heart of what I love about painting. I am most in my zone when I am discovering these kinds of applications of paint. Perhaps manipulation is not such a bad trait after all. .

Thank you for reading my blog and have a great week!

Cathy Hegman NWS, SAA, MSWS, MoWs, SW

All artwork and text posted on this blog are solely owned and copyrighted by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced or copied in any form or fashion without the written permission of Cathy Hegman. Anything included in this blog is solely the personal experience and thoughts of the artist and are not meant to be anything more than helpful guidelines for others to read.