oil painting

I am teaching myself how to make oil paintings. In turn, this oil painting is teaching me patience. Great...

I just found out today that if I want to complete the painting I am working on with a varnish, matte or gloss, which is highly recommended. I must wait several months before the painting will be dry enough to do that. This is not good news. Several months? And even then, applying the varnish is a process.

I am not sure that I'm cut out for oils. The website bluntly stated that if you are having trouble waiting several months until you can apply the varnish then you should paint with acrylics.

Furthermore, I also found out that certain colors take several weeks to dry. This is true. When I painted the first layers of the painting it took over 2 weeks for the painting to dry. I did not expect that and thought that I had done something wrong. I decided to read a little bit about oil painting since I found myself in the middle of one. No, I didn't really do anything wrong. Also, some colors have different drying times. You must not put a color that has a faster drying time under a color with a slower one. This is becoming very complicated.

Then, I realized that I wanted it to have that shiny, vibrant look and vaguely remembered from my art history classes that you must put something called varnish on the painting. So today, I found out that after I finally feel inspired enough to finish the thing I must wait several months until I can varnish it. I did not expect this.

I don't really know what I painted. I only used two colors. A yellow and a green. And one brush - even though you are supposed to have a multitude of brushes, elixirs, potions, various tools, palettes, scrapers and I don't know what else.

This mess of an oil painting has dominated my dining room table since....I don't really remember when actually. Sometime in October.

Hopefully I will finish it by the end of the year, and then in June I can varnish it. Ok, that's an exaggeration. I should be able to varnish in February/March. This thing better be good. There is so much pressure now. I was encouraged that one friend really liked it. When Jessi saw it, she really wanted to have it, even in its unfinished state. I was surprised.

I now realize why so many people use acrylics. I used to hold it against artists when I'd see that they used acrylics. I still prefer oils, but I did not know that several weeks and months were required in between the stages. It's quite the chemistry experiment.

Subject of the painting? I did not have a plan. I just wanted to paint yellow and green. I studied all the versions of yellow and green paints for a very long time at the store.... (that took time too) Now that it's taking shape it sort of looks like the northern lights I saw once upon a time over the Atlantic.

unfinished thoughts

I feel like talking to my blog of the cyberspace...

There is an enlightened evergreen tree in my living room,
an unfinished oil painting in the dining room,
a Gustav Klimt print in the bedroom,
and one lone bamboo in the bathroom.

My guitar still won't let me play chords...
we haven't gotten that far in our relationship.
Though it is very pleased with melodies:
amazing grace, simple gifts, besame mucho,
various hymns, let it be, ode to joy, edelweiss.
But absolutely no chords!
too painful...for the both of us I guess.
Ok, maybe the occasional simple chord,
but only a few a day.

The painting is not going to finish itself,
nor is the tree going to decorate itself.
I've encouraged it to do so by leaving
decorations on the ground beside it for a few days.
Nothing happens.

You'd think, if he truly were an enlightened tree,
he'd pick up the stuff and put it on.
I come home to a very nice looking tree,
just no ornaments, garlands, snowflakes or other trimmings.
Still the tree is very thirsty.

I really must finish the oil painting. It is my first ever.
but I am such a perfectionist.
I hate to do anything if I can't be sure of its imminent perfection.
This leaves out most activities.

Oil paints are very messy.
I made a mess of the cadmium yellow.
I've also left the paints and brushes
next to the painting for at least a month.
Conclusion: paintings do not paint themselves.

I saw Pride and Prejudice at the Power Center with Angela and Svenja yesterday. : )

However, the actress did not play a very good Elizabeth Bennett at all. I found it challenging to even like her character, one of my favorite female protagonists of all time. She was robotic and one dimensional. I could hardly get any sense of vulnerability at any moment. I don't know how anyone could get it so wrong. I don't know. Maybe it was her voice. A very annoying voice. All shouting and monotone emotions. And a blond Mr. Darcy ?? Seriously. I was not convinced. His hair was the least of his problems. I just am surprised they are seniors at the UofM Drama Program.

We are having Stolz und Vorurteil night at Svenja's : ) We need to watch the Keira Knightly version, and quick. Poor Svenja...I keep saying random German words to her and asking if it's right.

Songs of Earth and of Heaven

Audrey Luna performed at the DIA on Friday as part of the Friday Night Live series. She has performed all over Europe, including The Louvre, Wien, Berlin, Salzburg, St. John the Divine, etc. I am not sure how she ended up in Detroit, but I feel very fortunate that I just happened to plan my DIA visit the same night of her performance. It was one of the most brilliant things I've heard in a very long time. She sang in the Ford mural room just past the sparkle ceiling room. : ) [pictured above without the sparkles] Audrey has perfect technique, but more importantly, she genuinely connects with the meaning of the music and conveys that to the audience. All of her songs had to do with spirituality. She sang pieces by Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Maurice Ravel, Samuel Barber and Olivier Messiaen. I see that they just applied the umbrella term "spirituality" in the description, but all the songs had Judeo-Christian origins.

A few program notes:

"The performance tonight is a program exploring themes present in the special exhibition now on view, Monet to Dali, which focuses on how works of art can both evoke and project different moods and states of mind. The paintings and sculptures make visible the often vague world of human emotions. Building on that theme, Audrey Luna and Brad Caldwell explore how pieces of music can communicate the emotive nature of spirituality present in various belief systems. Listen as Audrey performs pieces that convey the power of spiritual beliefs through melody and lyrics" (Friday Night Live at The Detroit Institute of Arts Program Notes)

My thoughts on some of the pieces:

Aaron Copland - 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson

I do not like how Copland writes for voice. However, I do like the poems of Emily Dickinson. She sang The Chariot. Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me...

Charles Ives is a completely different story. He took American vernacular, negro spirituals and translated them into a classical style in the most brilliant way possible. "At the River" (1916) and "In the Mornin'" (1929) were the best. Please read the words for "At the River".

Then, Audrey sang Deux chansons Hebraique by Maurice Ravel, or 2 Hebrew songs. The Kaddisch is a Jewish mourning song. I think that was my favorite overall piece. I wonder if this is recorded anywhere. And the other one was in Yiddish, but I do not remember much about it.

I was not too impressed with the songs by Samuel Barber: St. Ita's Vision, The Crucifixion and Desire for Hermitage. I know that I am supposed to be impressed. It just wasn't my taste. He wrote these songs specifically for a highly respected soprano, Leontyne Price, but I don't like this style of singing. Now if I were to say that I didn't appreciate the music of Barber on the whole, there would be something very wrong with me.

Olivier Massiaen writes unspeakably beautiful music. Chants de Terre et de Ciel (Songs of Earth and of the Sky). Massiaen was also devout Roman Catholic and a devout naturalist with mild synaesthesia, which is probably a near perfect combination of things to make up a composer. Audrey sang Bail avec Mi, pour ma femme. (agreement with me, for my wife) and Resurrection. I wish I could find the words to "Bail avec mi". It was a love poem to his wife.