This large painting (30” x 40”) was inspired by a photo of rocks on a sea shore. You can probably guess that the arrangement of the rocks corresponds roughly to the large ocher area on the left. After that the paint takes over. The artist/student, Lorna Grothe, is finished with representation after that. The rocks have served their purpose. Where does all that purple come from? You can be sure the ocean was not purple in the photo. The painting has taken over.
The first stage, just purple and ocher, is shown above. Then 
she added the large white. Then some more patches of color, black and red, over the purple. After that she was at a loss over what to do next. Because acrylic dries fast, we were able to jiggle the imagination by just sticking some scraps of paper on the painting surface. The next image shows the painting with these patches of color ripped from a magazine. You can’t do this if you’re working in oil because the oil dries so slowly. But here we have an advantage of acrylic: when you’re stuck, just glue some patches onto the surface to help you imagine the work anew.
After all the snippets of paper were removed, her sense of the work was refreshed and Lorna moved into the last stage. Here’s the final painting, at least for this term. Work may continue on this painting, but it may also be considered completed.
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
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