Convincing Conclusion

The new version of the old painting is done. I'm waiting for the OK from the art consultant, but I don't know what else I could have done to paint it differently.

Ooooo - new version - 2011 - oil and cold wax on canvas, 36"x36"

It looks a little different from the original, but unless you toggled back and forth between the two versions, I don't know that you would notice much of a change. This one is not as slick as it appears in this photo and the old version is not as sketchy as it appears in its image. (You can see the old one here.) It looks good in person and the color is a bit stronger in some places. (By the way, you can click on the images to enlarge them.)

Ooooo detail of the new version

Yellow is a hard color to capture and you can see that the yellow ground looks very different between the image of the full painting and the detail. Actually, neither one is really accurate, but the detail is probably closer to the truth.

At some point during the painting yesterday, I decided that the piece had to stand or fall on its own - enough with the copying; let's make a painting. I remembered my favorite painting teacher, Rob Moore, talking about a painting having to be convincing. And before anyone else can be convinced, the artist has to reach that point. I had to be convinced that the painting had reached its conclusion and made sense to me. Well, I'm there.

Repainting the Painting

I have worked for a total of about 10 hours on the new version of Oooo, the oil painting that I mentioned in my last post. As you recall, the first version, painted in 2007, had been sold by an art consultant along with several other of my works. When I brought the painting to the studio to frame it, I discovered that the surface was unstable and the painting could not be sold in its present condition because it would flake away to nothingness.

Notations on a printed image of the repainted painting

This repainting is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought it would be more fun to just paint and not have to make decisions about what came next. Instead, I have no emotional connection to where I place the next mark; I am just copying what existed previously, trying to get the colors and spacing right as if I wasn't even the person who made the painting in the first place. This is an eye-opening task.

My plan is to get the elements in the right place (did I have to make so many of those GD boxes?) and then try to infuse some emotion into the thing even if it's not exactly like the original. There has to be some connection between me and the painting or it will look like it came from some mall or maybe one of those factories where paintings are made on an assembly line.

I'll keep you posted.

The Questionnaire: Pam Farrell

The Questionnaire is meant to be a lighter version of a bio, a little more revealing in some respects and personal without all the facts bogging it down. I supply the questions and the respondents supply the answers. Either one or both of us supply the images. (Note: Click on images to enlarge.)

                P a m  F a r r e l l               

What is your favorite color?

Currently, earthy greens/golds/browns/greys that have no name 

Hypnotist Collector (ochre 2), 2009, encaustic on panel, 18"x18"

Monoprint 1, 2010, oil on mulberry paper, 16"x20"

Monoprint 2, 2010, oil on mulberry paper, 16"x20"

Chamber 2, 2010, digital image

What is your favorite word?

Every day a different one... today's favorite word is excellent! 

Pam behind the camera on her Mac

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Creatively: challenging, new information; things I don't know 

What turns you off?

Creatively: over-thinking, self-doubt 

What profession other than artist would you most like to be?

Rock star or neuroscientist 

What is your favorite book or movie?

Changes all the time... currently the book I cherish is The Cloud Atlas; I love dictionaries, reference books, specialty glossaries 

(Not the novel The Cloud Atlas, but the actual cloud atlas)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cloud_Atlas

Who is your favorite musician, musical group or style of music?

Blues, jazz, three-chord rock n roll, early r & b

Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mingus, Chuck Berry, early Stones...I could go on

Charles Mingus

What do you most value in your friends?

Connection, authenticity 



Name three artists whose work has influenced your own or whose work you most relate to.

Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Brice Marden

Cy Twombly at the Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston with the gallery's largest painting, Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor

Gerhard Richter, Abstract Painting, 1995, oil on canvas, 41x36cm (about 16"x14")

Brice Marden, Adriatic, 1972-73

Brice Marden, Orange Rocks, Red Ground, 2000-02

Name an artist whose work you admire but which may be unlike yours.

Bruce Nauman, Richard Tuttle, Eva Hesse 

Bruce Nauman, Life/Death, Love/Hate, Pleasure/Pain

Richard Tuttle, For Ron, 2009, acrylic/colored cardboard/mahogany shelf, 14 3/4"x40"x2"

Eva Hesse, Ennead, 1966, acrylic, paper-mache, plastic, plywood, string

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Being in the paint

More Work From  P a m  F a r r e l l

All Things Flow (grey), 2010, oil on copper, 5"x5"

Canal 1121, 2008, digital image

Canal 1122, 2009, digital image

False Walls (lacuna), 2009, encaustic on panel, 36"x36"

Hypnotist Collector (grey), 2009, encaustic on panel, 36"x36"

Monoprint 3, 2010, oil on mulberry paper, 16"x20"

For still more work by Pam, see pamelafarrell.com and pfarrellartblog.blogspot.com

Pam is represented by Morpeth Contemporary in New Jersey