Gestural Paintings

Gestural paintings are about lines, shapes, and technique. The concept is more about the mark making than subject matter. It's not necessarily abstract, but usually free from small details. I set out to make four 3 X 3 foot pieces of family portraits. Below is the first of the four.

I suppose you could say the hair and flower are more gestural. I had a really hard time letting go and just making marks. It doesn't feel natural for me to paint in that manner.

"Amanda"
Oil on Masonite
3' X 3'

2012

Although it annoyed me that I struggled to paint in a "gestural technique," I learned something important. I learned that I have a style and a process of my own, and I'm not easily swayed away from it.  I am very happy with this piece.

Have a beautiful day!

Michelle

Fruit Torture
Digital Collage
Michelle Buchanan 2012

Recently I saw an interview with David Hockney that inspired me to try drawing on my tablet. I have done a lot of work in the past with Photoshop and other graphics programs. I also have a Wacom tablet and have tried drawing on that connected to my laptop with some pretty dismal results. After seeing what Hockney was doing on an ipad I was inspired enough to try again. This time I did it directly on my "knockoff" ipad that was purchased this past Christmas. The drawings were done using only my index finger. The above work is a result that I am quite pleased with. It is actually six separate drawings that I pieced together into one work. The most exciting aspect of this experiment was realizing that I can bring my tablet with me anywhere and use it to sketch. Not to mention that I now have a much better use for it in addition to it just being a glamorized book reader and email box.

I also did the background image on this site of the apple using this tablet. It's a little addicting, I admit.

Portraits

Portrait painting is a very personal and unique experience. As a painter, I always try to reflect the moment and character of a portrait mostly in the subjects eyes. It's probably too cliche to say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I'll just say the eyes tell all.

I submitted a painting to Poets & Artists Magazine for a special portrait project. You can find it in this issue:

Poets/Artist Magazine

I'm very excited to announce that I have two pieces that made it into this issue, as well as one poem.

For your viewing pleasure...

Poets/Artists | PoetsArtists #33 | HP MagCloud

www.magcloud.com