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Posts Tagged ‘Obsessionism’

red-roof-2009-smaller2

Yesterday, I wrote about obsessionism, about immersing yourself in the work and feeling as though you’ve become part of the surface.  Everything moves in a natural, rhythmic fashion.  Intuitive, not thought out.  There’s a feeling of giddiness that goes along with this that I’ve described  before as a kind of intoxication.  This painting, I think, fits into this category as obsessionist.

This is the painting I wrote of last week when I wrote about my new work for this new year  (Differing Technique– January 5 post) and the similarities of it to my Red Roof series from several years back.  This is the larger piece I was working on at the time, a 24″ by 48″ birch panel.

I always feel exhilarated when I paint in this style, excited by the pop of color and the building of brushstrokes.  I spend a lot of time just looking at these pieces and feel really drawn into them. There is a great balance I feel in these paintings between stillness and power as though I were at the absolute center, the middle line dividing the two opposing poles that make up everything.  They are strong yet calm.

Again, I struggle with the words…

As with much of my work, the title for this piece has not yet come around and I want something bold and unique for this painting.  I think it deserves it.

I am open to suggestions or even an opinion on the painting…

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Rousseau The DreamSunday morning and I’m thinking, of all things, about Henri Rousseau.

I’ve always been attracted to his work, mainly by the quality and density of his color.  It is rich and deep and translates easily to the eye and mind.  The lushness of his many greens and the way they all come together so cohesively is another factor.Rousseau A Carnival Evening

Then there his life as a self-taught painter, a man who was never taken quite seriously in his lifetime.  Quite compelling and an object lesson for artists everywhere to stick with their own vision and not be swayed by the style of the day to merely fit in with that which prevails.

Obsessionism

That’s the first time I’ve used this term and one that my wife, Cheri, uses to describe my work.  I’m still trying to define this definition.  In my head, it’s the intoxication of color, when I’m in front of a piece and the color I’m working in is deep and strong and I seem to be within the paint itself, engulfed and embraced.  Time is irrelevant at that moment and floats away.Rousseau Jungle Sunset

Thought becomes mute.  It is not from the front of the brain anymore, it is deeper, instinctual and reactive.  Ancient and ingrained.

It becomes a different form of expression where language is reduced to sensation, the feel of the wind above, the excitement raised by a mere arc or curve.  The depth of color.  Raw emotion.

Obsessionism.  It leaves me at a loss for words to properly describe what the term means to me but I see it in the work of Rousseau and perhaps that is why I am so drawn to it.

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