Woman in a Printed Black Dress mixed media 24x49
This is a painting that was part of an assignment where we had to combine everyday objects into a piece in order to branch out a bit. The concept is similar to Robert Rauschenberg's combines. I chose to use fabric and wood putty mixed with acrylic paint. I had been looking at a lot of Diebenkorn work and was eager to make a piece that focused more on composition while giving equal attention to every mark made instead of the hierarchy of marks that occur in more traditional work (two aspects of his work I really respond to). The woman and her surroundings are completely fictional and the position, logic, and form of these elements merely stand to contribute to the composition. This process of bending the rules of traditional drawing techniques such as perspective, light source logic, and human (and chair) anatomy in order to enhance a piece as I see fit is altogether enjoyable and liberating. This is also the first of several paintings using the arylic paint/wood putty mixture (an idea I picked up from a Larry Davis demo a couple of years ago). The stuff dries pretty quickly, so it's mixed in small batches and put on in sections much like a fresco. But instead of having a smooth surface, the texture is more like stucco - all bumpy and gritty.
Note: The white background you see in the lower section of the photo is a white wall and not part of the actual painting. The fabric hangs freely below the edge of the canvas.