The Ruins of Wide Ruin
24" X 18"
Acrylic on Canvas
Have you ever been to a place that feels like a vague memory?
Maybe that's why I painted the ruins of Wide Ruin twice. I feel as though I
stood in the dust of that yard…waiting for something…and finally taking refuge
from the blistering sun under this Spider Woman tree casting a shadow of
protection with outstretched arms.
This pattern of repeating images in my paintings is fairly
recent. I never used to paint things more than once. I would become bored with
a subject by the end of the painting and would never consider repeating it.
It's not due to a lack of images to work from. Sometimes I’m
curious see what would happen if I used another medium or different approach.
In this case, the echo of Wide Ruins is painted on a much larger canvas than the first version.
When I started this painting I was on fire—bringing it near
to completion over a weekend. But then, I lost my momentum. The piece sat
languishing in the "viewing area" for weeks. I ignored it and started
three more paintings.
And that took some serious ignoring. Not finishing a
painting bugs the hell out of me. There are very few pieces I'll give up on. I
hate to admit defeat (this extends to my non-art life, too).
An example? The painting of the wonderful horse we saw
running across the desert near Toadlena (toe-AHD-lenah) was one of those
aggravations. It's buried in a stack of canvases in my studio so I don't have
to look at it and come to terms with my unsolved problem. It's likely I'll
paint over that canvas, since the horse has declared I shall not capture him.
Eventually I heeded the lament of “the unfinished one” and
returned to complete The Ruins of Wide
Ruin. It only took a few minutes of concentrated brushwork to repair the
nagging boo-boos. It wasn’t as large a task as it had grown to be in my head.
Speaking of unsolved problems, after looking and looking and
looking at it, I think I've figured out what to do with the other unfinished
painting I mentioned a post or two ago. Now I just have to buckle down and fix it.
Though I might start something new first.
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