“Grey Areas”
This painting, Grey Areas, was the very first I completed in Painting II this past semester. I thought at this point of the painting it was finished but only because I was a little uneasy about the painting. I was not sure how I really felt about the piece at first. I was not really happy with it but I learned to love it.
For this painting, I was looking at a still life of different pieces of wood arranged on a table. As I was trying to render the still life with paint, I got a little lost. I felt overwhelmed by the entire time painting. Usually I always draw at least an outline of what I am going paint before actually applying the paint but for this one I dove right in. Using black or white acrylic paint, I started to lay down the colors where I saw them in the still life. When I reached this point of the painting I was not happy. I did not want to go any further so I stopped and left the piece alone for awhile.
Eventually I looked back on the painting and my feelings changed. This painting was my frustration and anger. I never expressed those emotions through my work before. But, because of these specific feelings, the title of my piece was created. I titled the piece “Grey Areas”. I cannot always be happy as much as I strive for happiness; other emotions play roles in my life and that is why I have them. Life is not always easy, not always fair, and not always radiant, there is a lot of gray area and that is okay because it is all about learning and growing and that is what happened with this painting!
I looked back once more at this painting towards the end of the semester. I felt the need to add something more to it, which lead me to this:
“Grey Areas, Not So Gray”
I went back in with black India ink and “Cloudless” acrylic paint. At random, I splattered the ink across the canvas and dripped the colored paint. I then altered the title a bit, “Grey Areas, Not So Gray” because color was added and my feelings towards the piece were not mixed anymore, they were not as gray. This piece is finally finished. I can finally say I am at ease with it. Working on this painting was definitely a process but a process I appreciated, learn from, and grew a little as an artist!