Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Russian Olive


Oil on board, 11.5" x 12"
$600 plus $12 shipping in U.S.
Click image to enlarge

For check payment or other arrangements, email don@dailyartwest.com


This is a variation on a theme visited before with a couple of smaller daily-size paintings. It began as a demonstration study during my recent oil workshop and has been tweaked and re-worked almost every day since. I began with a panel that had an old painting of mine on it that I really disliked. I took revenge by sanding it down just enough to blur the imagery and eliminate brushstrokes. It made a nice toned surface to start anew.


8 comments:

Susan Roux said...

I keep meaning to try that and reuse an old canvas, but still haven't. It would help reduce the pile of oldies that have no home. Nice painting.

Anonymous said...

this is beautiful... a feeling of olde worlde about it and a wonderful feeling... autumn does that to me:)

Don Gray said...

Thanks, Susan. Here's the way I think about recycling a painting: it's not saying no to what came before, it's saying yes to process. If the new painting comes out OK, then within it is the reminder that those earlier efforts ultimately contributed to a successful work.

Don Gray said...

Olde worlde from an olde guy, Rahina. :) Thanks.

lochinvarwelsh said...

I have a friend who encouraged me to use old canvases and let my "history" show through. I liked that term..."history" as it implied the later version was just an extension of what came before. One can't live today without a whole bunch of yesterdays! hehe That is especially true re: my paintings. "Russian Olive" is a lovely compilation of yesterdays and today. Thanks for showing us Don.

Don Gray said...

Thoughtful words, Lochinvarwelsh--thank you very much. Over time the painting process begins to look and feel like a metaphor for life process. Layers of paint echo the layering of one day over another in our lives.

Sharon L. Graves said...

Love Russian Olive. We raise sheep and goats so this has special meaning for me. I paint over things all the time. Canvas, masonite, wood, home cor pieces. It is all a learning process and sometimes I feel I learned some lessons well and others I need to try again.

Don Gray said...

Thanks, Sharon. It's kind of cathartic painting over something else, isn't it?