Sunday, October 14, 2007

"Yellow Tomatoes 5" --- SOLD



If I imagined some plate of alien fruit, I think this would be it. They also remind me a bit of fish eggs. Lovely thought. This is my favorite of the yellow tomatoes. I am finally satisfied -tomorrow I will paint something else. They were just a little translucent, and I think I finally captured that here.

I think painting is sort of like chess. The really good players can think many moves ahead, but you can never think a whole game out, because every game is different and you never know what's going to happen (I suppose that would be pretty boring anyway). So I never know quite what a painting is really going to look like until the end. But all good chess players have strategy and certain tricks they use when they see a familiar situation. Likewise we artists have general strategies and personal tactics that we use. I would argue that painting is more difficult than chess (oh who am I going to offend here???) in that you never "win" in art and we have an infinite number of variables, vs. the 32 players and 64 squares in chess.

6 comments:

Dani Brandimarte said...

Hey, maybe you should take a vote like you did with the pitcher/apple series? My favorites are 2 and 4, but they're all great.

Tracy Wall said...

Chess....art. I can see the analogy. Some moves create just the scenario you want; some can get you in trouble. Although I see it as we can always "win" with art in that if we don't like how the game is playing out, we can wipe the board clean!

Dean H. said...

Thanks for putting this into words. I've been wrestling with the concept of control versus the painting having a strong will of its own. Many times I am in wonder at the many pleasant surprises that show up at the end of a painting. It boils down to preconceived ideas versus following where the strokes lead you...and trying to remember the "surpries" so you can use them on purpose in the next painting.

Diana Moses Botkin said...

Great analogy, Carol. And this painting is wonderful! You make it look so easy.

Louis Hall said...

I enjoy your staccato brush strokes and bright ccolor schemes. Very nice.

Tara Wheeler said...

I'm with dani, 2 and 4 are my faves, I love the translucence you've captured in 5, but not as pleased with the stems/leaves on top.

The leaves in #2 are perfect. . .