I did about 20 paintings in China, and took thousands of photos from which I can create paintings here at home. I will be working to get pieces ready for our show which opens August 30 at Linden Gallery in Ellison Bay, WI, (please come!) with additional works being exhibited at Barnsite Gallery in Kewaunee, WI. After that, I will continue to work on pieces to submit to an exhibition in China next spring. Lots to do!
It was hard to paint at first. The light, the people, the architecture, the landscape - everything - was different and it took a while for me to get past the "shock of the new" and really start to see things. (Painting is as much about seeing as it is about applying paint. Maybe more). Once I started seeing more accurately, I had to figure out how to express my perceptions with paint.
I worked small - 9" x 12". The light changes very quickly when you're painting on location, so youcan't spend a lot of time on large canvases. (I also kept things small in light of our weight restrictions and the knowledge that I would be hauling these things around a lot...) Some of the paintings are nice works in their own right, while others will serve more as "visual note-taking" that will help me when I'm painting in my studio.
I've been sorting through my photos (a Herculean task) and find that I am drawn to the ones that focus in on individuals. It is the people that impressed me the most, and I think that my paintings are going to be about them. I' m excited to get started!
