Harlem Meer, 09.27.12

I was sitting in the Brandy Library enjoying a cocktail after last night’s Alex Kanevsky lecture.  My friend and I were talking about landscape painting and what got me there (here?).  We talked about Loraine… Turner… Inness… Kanevsky… Fowkes and it sort of dawned on me that i needed to lighten up and loosen up.  Become more myself.  I’d been choking up too much in trying to make work that looked like it is and to pay tribute academic styling.  And yet i have an extensive history and language with sketching and black and white imagery that is my own.  Denying that isn’t buying me any favors.

I think the argument has been “growth” but i should be able to grow within my comfort zone rather than trying to subject myself to trying to walk in the footsteps of 17th-19th century ideals.  That said, what i’m posting today isn’t necessarily going to be me going over to the darkside as it were.  But it’s a vast improvement over the earlier in work in that i’m losing edges and striking broader strokes; making generalizations and being less slavish with regard to what i want and more responsive to what the drawing wants…

First up is the Island, from a true north angle.  Still wrestling to find value range in the materials.  But you know, a huge step forward stylistically…

Second is a view of the southern point, immediately to the left from the very loose sketch from earlier in the week.  Wish i knew trees better.  There’s a magnificent old… oak? at the point that just sort of blossoms out there.  There’s a better view of it from the opposite side of the park.  At some point i’m going to spend a lot of time just with that tree because it’s magnificent.  In any event, the sketches/comps are beginning to look more like composed images and less like isolated studies.

A champion outing.  Both sketches, maybe 1h40.