10/19/10

Gypsy Cab

I finally can post this painting. It was challenging in a lot of aspects... For me it was one of those images that tests my will to leave things as they are. It is soooo hard for me to not overwork something... I guess the urge to "finish" areas or arrive at detail has to do with the way I was taught, or even more so, it's the weight of traditional figurative painting. But I've come to understand, (in my particular process, I wouldn't want to generalize) that I absolutely love when things just work as they are. And I guess I use that word, "work", because I truly believe that every single element in a painting has a purpose. Every single inch of that image has to work in tandem to help communicate something more emphatically. The famous Duran quote always struck me as one of those things that is at the core of image-making - "En art tout ce qui n'est pas indispensable est nuisible" (In art, all that is not indispensable is unnecessary).

  

I truly feel that this painting is helping me get on the "right" track... at least MY right track. I've always loved the idea that bigger paintings should look like blown up sketches, and even though my work looks nothing like what I envision (that is our curse after all), that's the path I want to follow. I think that this painting in particular is full of little moments that are just what the painting itself needed. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound presumptuous... I'm not sure if it's my best painting (who the hell am i to say what, if any, is my best effort), and I'm clearly not stating that it's a flawless image... I'm just saying that it's one of those images that I'm grateful for because I needed it. I just had to paint it and solve it in this particular manner because it meant that I was making a conscious decision to follow something. That "something" is probably different for everyone but in my case, it meant not touching things that I loved, even though every ounce in my body begged me to keep painting on top.

I've also been working on a bunch of portraits, together with some other bigger paintings. Here´s a pic of a painting that is currently more resolved but I have this older shot at the moment.  I had done a previous Tim Burton one, and this one is Tim Burton revisited. Stripes = Tim Burton... that's how advanced my brain is... I started painting this after I bought (always buy, don't download or copy artist videos) the Michael Klein video. I wanted to see how much I could work in the same manner, without sacrificing my ways, and I think he paints beautifully, and I'm very glad he does because I can't for the life of me paint that way. Wonderful video, get it. I'm always eager to see how other people approach painting, but it clearle wasn't for me...

So after a while I said fuck it, and I couldn't stick to the drawing and I just had to move paint around and mess everything up.

Anyways, here's  part of the painting, bad shot, but it gives you guys an idea...


That's it for now... later!




 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is some of your best work, and you more than anybody are capable of deciding that.

Regarding leaving things unfinished, do you think it is best to stop when a painter arrives at something striking, even though they may have to answer nit-picking questions, for example (not that I have a problem with it) why the yellowish arc on her chest?

Nicolás Uribe said...

I guess it was a way to prepare the other tones for that yellow... I was super scared of it, and I know that even though it's somewhat greyed down, it's a bold color for me to try and make work. As far as having a sort of geometric shape, I've always loved to try and balance falt shapes with forms that turn in space. Sometimes when there are no transitions, or areas in the painting that serve as middlegrounds, it looks a bit too harsh...

Anonymous said...

Oh, I see. I assumed you had toned the canvas yellow and left that part of it relatively untouched.

Anonymous said...

I am so afraid of using yellow, and you make it look so easy. It's great that you can show the progress of the painting, I love learning and trying (and failing) new strategies to approach painting, for me it's been a trial-error approach almost all the time but I feel I'm finally making some progress, and trying to figure out your work has helped me very much, for instance in the "Tim Burton" piece you are using a grid and I feel I should've thought of that before and now I'm certainly going to try it so I can work with more precission.
It's always nice to see new stuff from you.

Diego Peñuela said...

como siempre un trabajo muy admirable Nicolas. ¿Todavía anda por estos lares? ¿Se le puede contactar un día de estos?
Un saludo

- ------------:-:------------- - said...

beatheljuice beatheljuice beatheljuice. Asi que franjas igual tim burton.
una composicion muy inquietante, cuando termine las piernas se veran hipnoticas.

felicitaciones por ese amarillo limon, hace que los ladrillos tangan mucha presencia. sin duda un cuadro logrado con las inquietudes en las que trabaja actualmente.
un saludo.

Jose Manuel Estévez N. said...

Hola!!!

su trabajo siempre ha sido una inspiración para mi al igual que sus enseñanzas, recibí unos talleres en la Escuela nacional de Caricatura con ud.
me gustaría mucho que pudiera ver lo que estoy haciendo ahora.

http://jmestevezart.blogspot.com/

Sería muy grato que viese lo que me encuentro haciendo.


Un Saludo!!!!


Jm Estévez

SKIZO said...

Thank you for sharing
This Wonderful work with us
Good creations

mariana semino said...

Muy bueno tu trabajo!!
Me gusta cuando dejas esas partes sin definir, como sugerentes.
Son un pintor de exelencia..Bravo!!

I like paints said...

wow awesome work!