I've returned to a painting I started awhile ago, in the Spring, I think. It's of our bedroom, which is a continuation of the paintings I've been doing about my home. I'm really excited about this one, because of it's intimacy and emotional importance. It's the place where my daughter was conceived and born, a place of rest and refuge from the world, a place to be alone to read or pray. It has a dark, womb-like feeling and is rich in patterns and textures that are going to be challenging to paint. The original version was from the opposite end of the room, on the same canvas. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of that painting before I painted over it, but I do have a charcoal drawing:
I didn't really like the original composition; it felt closed off and was in a really awkward spot to paint (the light was really bad too). In this one, I'm positioned by the window, so I'm painting with natural light and more elbow room. Also, this version has the space of the closet in the background, which opens up the composition, giving it a pocket of space for your eye and mind to wander to. The rug plays a much more important role, and it's going to be fun to paint all those patterns as they move across the floor. The rug has been in my wife's family for a long time...it's beautiful, and she remembers trying to find all the abstracted animals shapes in it as a child.
I want this one to retain the 'looseness' of the drawings I've been doing. The space is really compressed and bulging as a result of trying to incorporate such a large expanse of the room, but I want the brush work to flicker and come alive. I did a charcoal study first, and worked on it in the studio, to set things down. I'll continue to work on it both in situ and in the studio because of the difficulties of painting solely in our bedroom. (My wife said our room smells like Art school...which can be good, or bad, depending on how you look at it!)
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