Remembering Peace in Stages Part 2

There are stages in painting where the road just seems to branch off in many directions, all with possibly successful conclusions. This can also be a point where the initial motivation can be overcome and lost. This is when it is good to ask yourself, do I stay the course or do I change the painting completely? This is key to painting in a series for me, at this juncture I see the glimmer of the next painting forming in my mind. I almost always stay the course with this current painting and then the next painting will be formed from the glimpses that are born in the stages of this painting. Are you seeing the unending possibilities of painting in a series? And the lure of working this way....

Stage 5 of Remembering Peace
by Cathy Hegman

I am looking at this stage and feeling that there are too many symbols and that they do not actually connect. I will now revisit the motivation for this painting, it is about peace in a way that refers loosely to the symbolism of Medusa and the mystery of head coverings, and most importantly how to tie all of this into a nice design that will resonate my thoughts. I am hoping for success but ready for failure at any point, as it would be naive to feel otherwise. I know the mistakes are part of the process and at this juncture there are many appearing. There are too many parts that are not connecting, but I can see my next move.

Stage 6 Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

My thoughts here are I need to get some dark values in this painting. I am thinking that the values will give it a punch that has been missing in the earlier stages. I added the hand again...but almost immediately I feel it is wrong, I will leave it and see if I can work with it in the future stages. The darker values almost give it a sinister feel, not the feeling I am looking for, but I do feel it needed higher contrasts in value in the painting. The figure seems a bit too large and looming to me as well, this must be corrected in the next stages as well. I have changed the background hue and leaned it too much to the red side so I will have to keep experimenting with the background in layers until I find the exact hue and texture that will speak to me.

Detail of Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

Stage 7 Finishing the thoughts and tweaking the design....
This stage shows the tweaking that has happened in the design of the figure, softening of the facial features, and elongating the neck area giving me a softer and cohesive feel for the painting. I also changed the hand and the figure shape itself, I feel this looks more complacent and thoughtful than the earlier stage. This is the detail jpeg of the face and dove; there are changes in both although some are so minor it is almost undetectable. You can compare the stages if you want to do so. These small details are so important and cannot be underestimated in their importance. I hope I am describing the thoughts in this process enough to make it clear and not to appear as if I am just droning on and on.





Final Finish Stage...



I divided the background and covered over the barbed wire found in the earlier stages, this gave me more of the look and feel that I had been seeking. I cleaned up the edges on some of the elements and at this point it is beginning to come together. I changed the hand to a more provocative position and have attached a string that connects the bird and the figure together in yet another way. The string is the metaphor for the line of thought that can help us find and remember the peace in our lives. This is in my mind is the gist of the whole painting and in one line I feel it is finished!
I hope you have stayed with me and are not totally bug eyed and bored with the process. I think it is nice to share the love, deep sorrow, longing ,dissatisfaction and the perseverance and working it out that helps me in my art.



I made a YouTube video of the stages in this painting with background music by J.Hegman, you might enjoy seeing it as well. The link is at the top right section of my blog, or here is the URL for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPtp-1jXfho



Thank you for reading my blog and I hope that it helps you in your art journey and that you in turn will share your work with others.

Cathy Hegman
AWS,NWS,MSWS,MOWS,SAA,SW
www.cathyhegman.com
www.youtube.com/hegman1

All artwork and text included in this blog is copyright protected by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced in any form or fashion or used without the written permission of Cathy Hegman. All text and artwork included in this blog are solely the thoughts and original art of the artist, Cathy Hegman, unless otherwise noted, and are meant only to be guidelines and thoughts for others to read.my blog.

Remembering Peace in Stages June 2010 Part One

I go to bed and wake up thinking about what I want to paint,I love the prospect of things to come in the form of new lines and marks in layers of effort and pigment. There is a constant tug and pull in my psyche that beckons me to paint the ideas that twirl like airborne whirligigs in my head. When the timing is right these ideas are snagged and painted with great ease and much triumph. Then there are the thoughts and ideas that get so deeply embedded in my mind that I find they have to be literally worked out on canvas in stages of deep thought and sometimes anguish. These are the paintings that teach me the most about myself and my abilitiy to handle the unknown and to blaze new trails on my journey. The idea of working in series appeals to me for this reason; there are ideas that demand to be put down in many ways and analyzed from many angles to find their true meaning. There is something in my makeup that makes me revisit ideas in my work, almost like a song that hangs in your mind and transports you to another time and place in your life. There are often symbols or shapes that appear and reappear in many of my pieces often representing similar thoughts or feelings about my subjects or their place in time. The mystery of art for me is the wonder of how I find endless fascination in one provocative subject and not in another subject.


I truly admire the work of representational artists. They have the information in front of them and their task is solidly there, make it appear as close to what it is as possible. I cannot stop and feel the painting is complete at this point I feel the urge to uncover the unseen the encrypted meanings in the everyday objects and often mundane moments in life. Art for me is the discovery of something that either does not exist or that forces me to think deeply about the piece and the thoughts of the artist that created the art. The slightly rough edged, gritty, slightly strange works are the paintings that seem to lure me in, with the promise of a mind adventure rather than a representation.


I work mainly in watercolor and water media, but lately I have revisited oil paints in an effort to keep my self current and comfortable in many mediums . I find slow drying oil paints allow me to stop and start the painting process and it enables me to work on several paintings at one time giving me access to work in a series simultaneously and in various stages of finish. I feel this is a form of multitasking in my art and a true gesture of the time in which we live now. Multitasking can be advantageous and it can be a hinder for me. I have found some paintings fall off of my brush while others lie deeply hidden in the ferrules and refuse to come out until many layers of paint have been brushed down and new textures formed. The ritual motion of over painting areas and the removing of layers is often a time of reflection as well as a method of building confidence in my process, allowing me the opportunity of the open door of change. The painting for this month’s blog will be an oil painting that went through many stages before it was in a stage that could be considered a frame worthy state.



Stage one: the thought process


This series is one I named the Medusa Complexities. I have a deep love of hats and have often wondered what the history of that love might actually be based on. I thought about it and decided one reason I like hats is that I feel a strange comfort in them, perhaps it is the anonymity of wearing a hat that gives me the feeling. This series has been in the works for many years as I have stacks of figures that have a common denominator, all of the figures wear hats or have shapes on their heads that shade their eyes, thus the symbolic relationship to Medusa seems apropos. Medusa and her story bring to mind the thoughts of strange head coverings, the female form, and the mystery of and sexuality and the entrapment. Most if not all of my figures have their eyes either covered or in shadow yet another tie to Medusa. I believe Medusa or the story of Medusa parallels many aspects of the human condition and I feel strongly about our relationships to each other, so this seems like a good series to work on this summer. Let’s move to Stage Two…hurry before I get going again on my theory of relationships and human conditions!

Stage one the gesture drawing
of
Remembering Peace by Cathy Hegman

Stage Two: Oil paint for the medium is chosen


I chose to work in oil paint on canvas as I have been working with oil washes and am drawn to the similarity to watercolor and to acrylic. I over paint the washes sometimes completely, but they give me the freedom to explore the medium and to explore the drawing process. The washes work as a really nice lead in dance to the painting process for me. I do my gesture drawing in an oil wash. I make my wash with tube oil paint, mineral spirits, and liquin. The mixture is comprised of a small dab of oil paint, a heavy amount of liquin but enough mineral spirits to thin it down to the fluid consistency of a liquid acrylic paint. This is following a rule of fat over lean paint as well as giving me the ability to see the canvas through the paint in places and thus the ability to juxtapose the opaque thick paint with thin washes in my work. I also keep a sprayer of mineral spirits on hand, and often use it to spritz the drawing to make it drip and run down and around the canvas. I call this violating the paint, and I find a strange comfort in paint that is violated or forced to perform in an adverse or new way that is not traditional. This is my first grasp at capturing the emotion I am after, it is my blueprint of sorts.

Stage Two of Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

Stage Three: Let the Games begin



I always fall deeply in love with the gesture drawing. The beginning stages of a painting are the best for me, they are ripe with ideas and changes to be made, the fun starts at this point. Every stroke is one that will be a building block either one to build up or tear down. I believe the knowledge that a piece is not finished or is heading down the wrong path is often as important as banging out pieces of art that are successful. Mistakes are the best forms of learning in a process. I begin by laying on the paint in layers of oil paint laced with liquin to hasten the drying time, losing the original gesture drawing marks in places and retaining it in others. I find that most of the oil pigmented paints will dry overnight to a state that can be worked over in more layers or scraped into for texture. I like red and it works in this piece as a reminder of some of the gesture that might be lost in the layers. I like to reinforce strokes with complimentary hues to give them more impact. At this point I could have painted them in any hue as they will most likely only appear in parts if at all in the finished piece. We are still having fun....You might note that I extended the line from the hat to the width of the page connecting my figure to the sides and top of the page, I did this give more stability to the figure at this point.

Stage Three of Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

Details of Stage Three

Stage Three



I have decided the hand and nest are just too cliche for me and that the face needs to be more intimate with the viewer. I like the bird shape symbolizing peace to be hovering next to the figure, that part feels copacetic to me. I am working on connecting them in the space, the first attempt is with barbed wire, which I love to use as it conjures up so many thoughts about the barbs and the boundaries etc. I am repeating the bird wing shape in the figure's hat for repetition sake and to me this is working. Okay at this point I am still allowing sharp objects to be out in the studio there is still hope although this stage is a bit stilted and not what I am after for this painting.

Stage Four Remembering Peace
by
Cathy Hegman

Stage Four


Remember the statement about how every stroke is a building block, here is the example of many building blocks, some of which will be layered over but the layering will give me and even richer tactile surface with the oil paint. I work all over the painting making adjustments in the face, bird, and the figure shape etc. at this stage. I also added the pearls at this point, they will be in the piece somewhere and possibly here but I am now deciding I am not happy with the background hue and texture, so they might disappear and reappear later. I added the big blocks to link the figure to the bird on another plane of the painting but they don't feel quite right to me, so I will think and work on them in the following stages as well.

I truly hate to leave this at this state but it is late. I will post this blog and continue on this painting in a follow up blog in the next day or so. If you are not bored completely at this point, check my next blog to see the rest of the story......

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope that it helps you in your art journey and that you in turn will share your work with others.

Cathy Hegman
AWS,NWS,MSWS,MOWS,SAA,SW
www.cathyhegman.com
www.youtube.com/hegman1

All artwork and text included in this blog is copyright protected by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced in any form or fashion or used without the written permission of Cathy Hegman. All text and artwork included in this blog are solely the thoughts and original art of the artist, Cathy Hegman, unless otherwise noted, and are meant only to be guidelines and thoughts for others to read.my blog.

Oils of Summer and Kabuki Dreams May 2010

Kabuki Dreams
in progress
by
Cathy Hegman

Kabuki Dreams
in progress
( detail to show transparency of oil washes)

The studio is simmering in the heat of summer and the pigments laced in oil and turpentine are cooking at a slow pace on boards and stretched canvases laying about the studio in various stages of finish. I have a weird habit of painting in oils in the summer, maybe it is because years ago I did some plein air painting during the spring and summer months, but no longer do I have the urge to continue that particular painting ritual, or maybe there is just something deep inside of me that will not relinquish the oil paint addiction. I just love to paint and I believe that the medium I use matters little to me, as the process for me is my motivation. Years of painting have melded all the procedures in my mind if not in my work. I work in all of the mediums in an effort to dig new rabbit holes to fall down and research. I tend to paint in a more painterly and less specific style. I believe my style harkens back to my first lessons in oil painting , which were in the impressionistic vein, which I loved at that time. I now tend to like to add a good bit of an edge to my work, which makes is more contemporary to me and my time. I like to use values to achieve this and to give me that bit of mystery in my work. I have of late been revisiting the realm of oil washes, which I find very comfortable since it has a bent toward layering much akin to the water media layering that I so love to paint. I find if I dive in with the washes first I can then progressively,thoughtfully,and slowly, add the layers of opacity leaving me with a rich, other worldly surface that often presents a utopia like satisfaction for me. I do not know how to describe the feeling of adding these layers when you have the aha moment other than you feel a strange and comforting satisfaction that makes you keep going back to the piece and trying to find the how and when the moment actually occurred. I feel a bit like I am out on a limb here; but, I will bet the artists reading this will be able to testify to this feeling. Layering is my comfort zone, perhaps because with layers there is the continual feeling of hope for the next successive layer to pull off the masterpiece or maybe it is the unknown desire to have the ability to keep going and not finish the piece and enjoy the process. I am not sure but in any event it is the mode of operation for me whether in oil, water color, acrylic, gouache and or charcoal. I just seem to desire to have the marks from previous layers to make the piece work. I heard an artist say that every portrait he did was just a series of strokes made to correct the previous bad strokes. I really like that theory and know exactly what he means. It is much like in life we learn from our mistakes and often the scars are more beautiful than the flawless innocence of youth. Time is important in art and life.
The figure remains my main forte at this juncture but now I am working more in the realm of achieving personality in the gesture and face of my figures. I am finding I can paint only the parts of the figure and or face that I want to emphasize and leave the others either off of not detailed at all and the figure still serves the purpose I intended. I strive to say more with less and to give only a connotation of what the figure is about or what my statement will be for the piece. I am always thinking of life and the situations we all deal with and the inevitability of time and the reactions we have to the mundane as well as the tragic in our life spans.
We are not promised an easy life but the way we roll with the punches in our life and the way we nurture others will be the story we leave in our wake. I have often wondered how it would be if there were no tragedies, failures, disappointments and fears in life, my conclusion is that life would be rather dull and uneventful and would not press us to deeper thoughts of why we are here and what this life is all about.
I am working on Kabuki Dreams in the studio now. The history and meaning of Kabuki are rather interesting, if you are so inclined here is a link that briefly gives the meaning: http://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraculture6.htm
I began the painting on canvas covered board. I started the painting process with oil washes of indigo, alizarin, and mars black for the lay in stage. I drew with my brush. I use a liner brush for this step as it gives me a bit of control but not too much. My pigments are very runny and loose at this point to allow for the transparency in places. In the subsequent layers I have added the more opaque pigments such as a bit of cadmium red deep,yellow ochre, raw sienna and white. The addition of opaque pigments on top of the washes gives me the ability to scratch and lift the opaque layer to show bits and pieces of the underlying wash layer, giving the bit of complication that I strive for in my work. I think it is like seeing a glimpse of something, it intrigues the viewer to look deeper. It is amazing how much mileage you can achieve with very few pigments. The whole piece is about hope and regeneration of life, the symbols are common in many of my paintings. The egg and the pearls of wisdom. The figure itself is one out of my imagination, I leave off the details mostly to simply the figure. I have added some shapes that give the look of deep contemplation to the face and the eyes are in shadow to prevent any contact with the viewer, I like this feeling of connectivity without preconception of what the figure maybe trying to say to the viewer.The face of the Kabuki dancers are covered in rice flour and paint to cover their true identity and I found that to be an interesting take for this piece. Identity is the pivotal point of this painting and of most of my paintings that strive to let the viewer enter into the piece and become personally involved. I have left the door open for someone to place themselves in the figure and to feel the empowering emotion of holding that fragile symbolic egg in their hands that could bring hope or could bring destruction and devastation. The pearls of wisdom I employ as symbolism in my work often is there to remind me that no matter how lost I feel the answers are always close by me. I will add more and more layers to the piece or maybe not, I get up each morning and reassess the progress or damage and make my move. I added some layers of pattern in the background this morning...will post later or I may paint them out!
Thank you for reading and I hope you will have a great month!

Cathy Hegman
AWS,NWS,MSWS,MOWS,SAA,SW
www.cathyhegman.com
www.youtube.com/hegman1

All artwork and text included in this blog is copyright protected by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced in any form or fashion or used without the written permission of Cathy Hegman. All text and artwork included in this blog are solely the thoughts and original art of the artist, Cathy Hegman, unless otherwise noted, and are meant only to be guidelines and thoughts for others to read.my blog.

April and all the Hoopla

April 2010 Spring is in the air……

The river is resting after ravaging the banks earlier in the year, the gates are closed and there is very little current. It is spring for sure the fish are jumping and rolling in the caramel water, in their spring rituals of replication. We took our first voyage of the year last weekend and hope to go out again this weekend. We survey the changes the river has made over the winter and quite often just ride in silence wrapped in the deafening blanket of nature. I do most of my deep thinking when we go out on the water, there must be something to the saying "Still waters run deep", but quite frankly rivers run deep as well.

Farmers are planting crops with reckless abandon, I am confident that most if not all farmers are in it just to create new life in the fields. The intoxication of the smell of life and rich brown promising soil drives them to return to this every spring, until they can either no longer physically or emotionally wrap their lives around it. There is something to be said for persistence, it is the force that moves us to challenge ourselves to search beyond struggle, it is the mentor of endurance, and I for one believe it is a force that everyone faces daily.

In the studio I am working on paper again. I am reminded that life is uncertain and brief and that life comes full circle and in stages that are predictable but not without pain. I face the fact that my dog, Rocko, is growing old and has many frailties that crush me every day with their incapacity in his life. I am certain our time is not long together so he continues to be a pivotal theme in my work. It is not just him, but the companionship that we share, and the actual need we have for each other. The piece today shows my vulnerability and the fact that not every stroke is one of artistic bliss. I would like to show how often it is a freeing and very growth inducing lesson to breathe life into a painting that for one reason or another falls short of what you expected.

The original painting is on paper, and for the most part is a disaster in my eyes. I had originally thought of using two figures connected and having them interact with animals, in particular dogs. I feel this painting fails on many levels and it very much like running through church naked to post this for me, but I think we all learn by our mistakes so here goes…

I am disappointed on many levels. There is no emotion in this piece there is nothing happening between the shapes to makes the piece feel dynamic. It is mute in its ability to speak to anyone, short of the dog shape referring to Rocko, it is emotionally bereft of feelings. The design is lacking miserably as well, so this is not what I wanted. To show how really cruel I can be to myself, I am posting the black and white jpeg, which without color shows even more clearly the blankness of this piece.

The paper is not expensive, probably four or five dollars, but the little monkey that periodically appears in my head keeps poking and prodding my brain forcing me to not give up. I could more easily start on a new piece but something is urging me to experiment with the mediums and perhaps teach myself something technically as well in the process of resurrecting this painting. So here we go…I just love a good adventure…

Large brush in hand, actually a chip brush , the cheapest you can buy,I dip into the gesso and begin to see a heartbeat thump on my paper, life is returning here. I am feeling better with every stroke. There are parts that are completely obliterated and covered with the blanket of thick snow white gesso. I am feeling the comforting promise of a new beginning with the first stroke. There is a mingling of colors being picked up in the previous layers of watercolor and gouache creating new textures and colors with the gesso. The gesso is acrylic based and as the watercolor mixes with the gesso it creates a toned gesso surface. My paper is now taking on a leathery new texture, I am thinking the gesso will be somewhat absorbent but also will only allow any application of watercolor to lie on the surface giving me the option of lifting any color I am not satisfied with up to another value or completely off. This is good, and gives me even more options. I end up with almost a blurred deep in the fog looking painting that is interesting in itself but I am sure I can make this work so I will venture to another level. I feel somewhat vindicated at this point, and go to bed thinking of new ways to apply paint to this new and engaging surface.

Okay no bed yet, I am unable to sleep until I change a few things. I am starting to change the design a bit; I added another dog and some lines have moved. I am still not sure about the figures, they bother me but I will tend to that in the morning. I have a gallon of gesso if I need to change the figures I can do it tomorrow.

Morning comes and I am walking into the studio and seeing the painting with fresh eyes, caffeinated by 3 cups of coffee and ready to paint. I am still not happy with the figures, they do not make the statement I am after with this piece, so I gesso one of them completely out of the space. I have to wait for the gesso to dry, and while I am waiting, I do a few value studies to play with the design. I am thinking about the painting and the concept behind the piece. I feel closer to it now that it has one figure as that would feel more personal. I am trying to show the relationship of a figure to another figure or figures and this time it is animals, in particular dogs. When I think of dogs the words that come to mind are loyal, faithful, companionship, playful, watchful, guardians etc

I am posting the black and whites as well as the color jpegs to show the values and how they are working or not working. Well, the dog shapes are fun and seem to be leading the eye pretty well back to the figure but the figure is a stick in the mud. It actually kills the piece with the stoic vertical stiff look, this has to be rectified. I can say the colors are nice but the value is too heavy on one side. The options are one to heavy up the value somewhere on the opposite side to give a balance or two I can change the values totally again. I am in this for change so since the entire figure has to change; while I am changing, I will create a new value pattern. I am hoping to give the figure a way to connect physically and mentally with the dog shapes to show the connection I am trying to evoke from this painting. I am thinking this could be nice bird cage liner at this point but the little monkey is working overtime and prodding me to keep trying. I have a plan for the figure and will put it into action. Here we go…

Well I gave my figure some life and extended the upper dog leg shape down to connect to the figure. Now I have my eye moving in a circle shape which reinforces my theme for the piece. The hoops will be another way to give the circle shape to the piece. I will repeat the hoops three times, as odd numbers are always more interesting and in my mind I am thinking that the dog shapes each have a hoop and the figure has a hoop, this makes sense to me,as we all seem to jump through hoops to please each other. I am pleased with the turn of events here and seeing a definite rhythm going now. The design now is pleasing to my eye and works to relate my message, I can ask no more from a design standpoint in this piece, and to think I was going to make this a bird cage carpet just a few steps back. Perseverance is the key to most things in life and art, giving up is easy but I have learned volumes from my mistakes in this piece. After a few more hours of pondering strokes and application of paint and working through my thoughts on color and cohesiveness in color I finish the painting. I may never show it or sell it but it is invaluable for the lessons it taught me in the process. Here is the final painting. It feels right to me now and I believe it works, or at the very least it expresses the emotional feeling I was after and I saved the paper!

I hope you might have learned something from my mistakes and enjoyed muddling through the process with me. I am grateful to you for reading. Take care and have a great month!

Cathy Hegman
www.cathyhegman.com
email: hegmanart@aol.com


All artwork and text included in this blog is copyright protected by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced in any form or fashion or used without the written permission of Cathy Hegman. All text and artwork included in this blog are solely the thoughts and original art of the artist, Cathy Hegman, unless otherwise noted, and are meant only to be guidelines and thoughts for others to read.my blog.

Emergence: Silencing the Stigmas

The Big Sunflower River running by my house.

The river rises and falls in twists and turns. The river decided to take three of my large trees and huge chunks of my bank when it fell this time. I now have a much more open vista but a mournful feeling for my trees which are languishing and bobbing in the murky deep water off the bank, now a new home to the water dwellers. It is the unknown power of the water and the unpredictable way it marks its course over the earth that makes me fearful. I can only watch and wonder and hope it is abated for now.

In the studio,the paint flows. I decided long ago, much like the river, to never be stagnant in my art. I like to work in watercolor and goauche for awhile and then move to oil and acrylic, I have now added to the mix; working in encasutics (beeswax, damar resin and oil). I believe this keeps me current and on my toes, honing my abilities to work in many mediums. The use of different mediums and surfaces feeds the need I have for finding myriads of ways of creating texture in my work. I can remember years ago at one of the first workshops I ever attended, Alex Powers, it was then he told me that I should find what intrigues me in my art and follow that muse. I did not have to think long about it at all, as it has and always will be texture. In watercolor I use a visual texture made by manipulating the paint to give the appearance of texture, while in oil, acrylic and encaustic it is a physical surface texture achieved with each of these mediums. I have found that I have no preference as long as it reads as texture and it is interesting. My love of textures has always been there as I have always loved antiques and the patinas that have given them their beauty from age and I find a comfort in these things. Perhaps the comfort is from the knowledge of time and history or maybe just the mystery of texture, the what caused it the how was it made, the how did it survive this long, it is limitless if you think about it. My painting in this blog uses visual texture.

Emergence: Silencing the Stigma by
Cathy Hegman AWS,NWS,MSWS, MoWS, SW,SAA
watercolor on paper

Step one
Thought process:
In my latest painting titled Emergence: Silencing the Stigma, I am working through the coming of age and the living through and with the whole little fruit incidence in the Bible and the underlying feeling that women are still stigmatized in the world, and perhaps the reason is deeply rooted in our history. Why do women earn less than men? Why is gender given so much importance? Simply put, I believe deeply that gender should have no bearing on a person's worth. It is the soul of a human that transcends and gives meaning to every human and we are all created equally and here for a purpose.

Step Two
How do I put this into a painting?
I break it down into the feelings I have about this issue, simply put I feel like society has placed boundaries in the form of barriers that we must push against until we break them down. So I began this piece with my figure struggling and pushing the walls or boundaries. I painted the stigmas of the serpent and the female forms with apples on their heads as targets under the water , to give the thought that perhaps we are emerging from this pattern one day. I purposefully made one boundary line as barbed wire loosely referencing Christ's crown of thorns,and on the other side are the pearls of wisdom from God,the hope that I believe we all strive for in life.

Step Three
Choosing the color palette and shape of the paper.

I chose square as the shape of my paper as it has a calming feel to it, this struggle is not fast and furious it is slow and steady sure. In this case I chose a cool palette with soft hues. The only warmth in the piece is in the main figure, to give a greater presence to the figure and to secure it as a focal point. I also placed the lightest light around my figure shape to bring attention to it. The dark bottom of the painting is to signify deep water and deep thoughts and emotions. This dark shape grounds the lighter softer tones in the painting. The bars that the snake is wrapped around serve to tie the light with the darker hues of the painting. I made the waterline as two different levels on the figure to keep some interest in shapes and their sizes.
Step Four
Am I finished?...
I think I will move on from this painting but this subject will be revisited again, perhaps in a different medium. Until then I hope everyone has a great month and enjoys the wonders of Spring! Have a blessed Easter!




Cathy Hegman

www.cathyhegman.com

email: hegmanart@aol.com


All artwork and text included in this blog is copyright protected by Cathy Hegman and should not be reproduced in any form or fashion or used without the written permission f Cathy Hegman. All text and artwork included in this blog are solely the thoughts and original art of the artist, Cathy Hegman, unless otherwise noted , and are meant only to be guidelines and thoughts for others to read.