pulling a Bonnard
recently exchanged some work / took back a number of paintings from a gallery and gave them some new pieces to try and sell; getting the work back after not having seen the returned work for a few months was like seeing it for the first time (and we normally put work aside and do not involve ourselves / do not look at it for several weeks after it is done to gain an emotional detachment from it after which we can see it with fresh eyes and decide whether we still think it works or not); anyways this time we decided to pull a Bonnard;
the story as i understand it is that anyone who owned a Bonnard would hide it whenever he was coming to visit because during any visit he inevitably would disappear and could be found with his paint box out continuing to work on ‘his’ painting in front of him, because according to him, they were never really finished, even though his friends n clients liked the painting just the way they bought it and did not want it finished further…..
so after getting them home we saw changes that we could effect that would take the work just that much further – normally when we look at a pieces some time after it has been painted, if we see ‘more’ that we would do with it, we consider creating an entire new painting which would express the possibilities we now envision, making it a series.
in this case we continued to work these 3 winter pieces a shade further without the distraction of friends / clients trying to stop us…….
Lost afternoon abandoned to sunlight and a forest full of secrets 22″ x 30″ mixed media
Shifting impressions of sunlight whistling thru a whizz bang day 14.75″ x 24″ mixed media
clear winters day full of shifting impressions & quietly random strips of sunlight 18″ x 24″ mixed media