This past month involved research into two areas; flesh tone palettes and the oceanic feeling. First, I finished my portrait which was solely my newly recommended palette from my mentor, Dana. Viridian, Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone red, Cadmium, and Lemon Yellow. It began with a mix of the two oranges then adding white to get a sort of base flesh tone. Then, mixed up some chromatic greys: viridian and cadmium or viridian and quinacridone and lemon yellow, adding white in steps. The effect created a much more harmonizing color space, with less dramatics that were coming from my older shadows being down in Payne's grey or black.
While reading Linda Nochlin's “Bathers, Bodies, Beauties”, I came across the idea of the oceanic feeling. Nochlin originally believed the idea was about anxiety and being enveloped by and sucked down into the ocean, lost at sea. The idea of an oceanic feeling, published by Freud in 1930, is in fact the notion about the origin of religion. It is a sensation of an unbreakable bond with the external world in its primary form. The oceanic feeling can be described as a sort of oneness with the world or a limitlessness.
In my work I see Nochlin's misreading as the masculine; rough, impressive, critical, anxiety producing. And Freud's definition as the feminine; spiritual and nurturing.
With these continued studies of Erica at the helm I am exploring the composition and style I will use to convey the battle of the masculine and feminine in the seascape. Here I have bits of the pink breaking through the rough seas with Erica calmly looking forward as she handles her ship in the imagined landscape.
These surfer girls were done in preperation for a show at Fluke Newport but I used the time as an opportunity to experiment more with the flesh tone palette. The first was done no underpainting, impressionist palette (ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, and cadmium red) glazes of the 'new Dana palette' and non-mixed black. The painting is dramatic and I think beautiful but adding the black connects the work more to the photograph it references rather than being more painterly in tone. The next was a quinacridone underpainting with an impressionist glaze no black. And the final two were a mix of impressionist flesh lights and 'new Dana palette ' shadows.
To better understand my thoughts of the two oceanic feelings I decided to take photographs. The black and white images represent the anxiety of the over engulfing waves; the distant glow of a saving horizon too far out of reach. With some of these images I find myself looking at them and wanted to take a big breathe of air.
The color images are more peaceful. The spiritual and religious aspects of the oceanic feeling that give off a sense of calm and oneness with the vast landscape. Instead of a drowned feeling these a feeling of willingness to immerse one's self into the sea.