Thursday, May 19, 2011

One painting One year - Day One

I was sitting in my studio this morning not sure of what to do for the day...

This blog will document the changes that occur during the creation of a painting.  I will work on this painting for at least 1 year and will document the changes after each painting session.  I find that with deadlines it is difficult to live with a painting for very long.  So I am experimenting with this painting for an extended period of time to push myself past the point of "it is good enough to show".  During this process I know I will get to a point where I will begin to treat parts of the painting too precious.  I think this is a problem that a lot of us artists have.  We don't want to mess up something once we get it right.  But I have found that if I go past just "getting it right" I learn a lot more.

I am not doing a daily post, because I won't be working on this painting daily.  I will just post whenever I do work on it.  Part of working on a painting is being around it so the problems can be noticed.  All too often I have left the studio at the end of the day thinking I did a good job on a painting until I come back the next morning and notice many problems with the painting that I hadn't seen the night before.  There have been several paintings that I have kept in my studio for longer periods of time and those paintings always seem to turn out better.  I worked on a painting on and off for 8 months this past year.  It was really wild how much it changed during the process, I wish I had documented that one.

If you follow along you will notice the painting go from being good, to looking pretty bad.  But that is interesting to me.  Hopefully in about a year or so the painting will be complete and I will feel like it is in a good enough spot to sign it.  By me making the process of this painting public, it will make me keep my word and work on the thing for at least one year.

Hope this is interesting to you.

-Logan Maxwell Hagege

7 comments:

  1. Really interesting! My greatest weakness as an artist is rushing everything to finish because I am impatient and want insta-masterpieces. I am inspired by your commitment here and will, perhaps, follow your lead one day. Until then, I'll watch you. hehe. Best wishes.

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  2. May the Muse be with you. Best of luck on the Logan. Looking forward to this.

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  3. @Mara, I think all of us deal with the same problem. It is easy to be impatient and try to get the painting to look good enough as quickly as possible. But I always find that pushing past that point teaches me quite a bit about my work.

    @Kyle, thanks for the kind words, I hope this doesn't turn into a big disaster.

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  4. This sounds like a very interesting project. I like the subject chosen and your intentions.

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  5. This will be an interesting journey to watch... Thanks for the little window into your world.

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  6. Very cool idea! I will definitely enjoy watching your process. Years back when I worked for Scott Christensen, he told me, "You have to be willing to destroy the best thing you've ever painted [referring to passages w/in a painting] to get your painting to another level." That comment rings in my ears every time I get to that point of "too precious." I've also totally wrecked paintings as a result. It's a bumpy and exciting road, isn't it!

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  7. @ Ruth, thanks for following along, I think it should prove to be an interesting project.

    @ Marian, thanks for watching!

    @Jen, I think Scott is totally correct. I tell my students that if you did it once, you can do it again. If we think of each painting as a vehicle to grow as artists I think we are more willing to take some chances.

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