OCH Hounds, III

This painting was started as an experiment of painting process as I have described in my process statement. As an artist we develop our bag of tricks that make us unique. I have made my own statement as an artist but decided it's time to grow. This painting is about that growth. In a way, it's like going backwards into more traditional work but in that process, because of my stage, it will take me forward to new ideas. If you saw this painting in a gallery you might have to look at the signature to see who painted it! Of course that is not my ultimate goal. I think these paintings I do now will further my depth in future paintings and also appeal to a more conservative collector.

Over the last couple months I have been painting with other artists in a figure painting class. It has been more than 20 years since I painted the figure from a live model on a regular basis. The time constraint required me to make a few changes in my process. In this painting I used some of those techniques in an experiment to soften edges some and allow myself to move the drawing around mid painting. In figure class we do not have hours to get the drawing just right which I usually do in my painting. These hounds were adapted and moved some. In this process the entire canvas does get covered in opaque paint. In my normal process, the drawing is iridescent since the paint used to draw is transparent. Normally, I get the drawing right and do not move it as I finish the painting. If opaque paint covers transparent, by moving the drawing mid painting, that raw canvas and glow of transparent paint is lost. Will I use this exclusively now? Probably not. But for some time I will pursue this process further.