“An Abstraction”
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
—T.S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton V,” Four Quartets
I may have given Henry James short shrift in my high school years, but I selected the above lines penned by T.S. Eliot as the quotation to accompany my senior yearbook photo. I’m intrigued now to see what caught my attention (way) back in the day, to see how early I was pulled towards those who could voice what I could not but somehow already knew.
Today, I’m taking a look at a chronological sequence of selected present moments captured by me in paint on a single 30 x 30″ canvas.
first paint applied to blank canvas
detail
30 x 30″; acrylic, collage, ink, and oil pastel on canvas
abstract landscape
21 Dec 2020
first brush strokes of gesso on top of
At the Edge;
starting afresh
first brush strokes of a phthalo green blue shade mix;
starting again, again
canvas prepped to go in its new direction
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10 responses to ““An Abstraction””
Oh my! I had to read this twice to fully absorb what was actually happening here. So many layered stories on that one canvas….and so many layered experiences in your life since high school. And those stories and experiences are interesting and meaningful….yet there is nothing more exciting and real than the present…and the chance to go in a whole new direction!
MaryAnn: YES!
to your ‘getting it.’ I had no idea when I began painting several years ago, that I would paint over previously completed compositions and start all over again on the same canvas. I had no idea that process would become so life-affirming to me, nor that painting would be such a PRESENT experience moment to moment.
I don’t know that I paint “fearlessly” over my paintings but, one way or another, I get the job done when something inside me indicates that painting over is what’s called for. There is almost always a flash of paired peace and excitement that comes with those first strokes of paintover. You know the feeling; you’ve been there yourself! Bring on the gesso bucket!
At certain junctures—for example, after I’ve signed and titled a piece and hung it in my home for a couple of years!—I could say that I am ‘covering it up’ when I brush gesso onto the entirety of the canvas and go on to take it in new directions. Or I can see and say that any painting is a creative process constantly in flow : )
Sheila, I’m not sure bravery is what comes into play here. By the time I paint over something it usually just feels like the right next step, and taking it is a relief. I have to summon FAR more bravery at times to make the next mark on something that I want to control but know I can’t.
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