About Fear and White Canvases


I think it was Picasso who said there were fewer things in life scarier than a white canvas. I couldn't agree more. While it is impossible for me to REALLY know what he meant by that, I have a few reasons of my own on why a white canvas should usually be avoided.

Now, let me paint you a picture:


 Run, Edvard! Run for your life!!!

For the inexperienced, a white canvas can be terrifying. It's a monster that will eat you alive. It is expectation, insecurity and anxiety. And don't you dare to face one of them in public, you will never feel more judged in your lifetime! All those stories about great artists, godlike creatures with commanding skills and unworldly talent that needed only a single line to convey even the most abstract of human emotions will come to mind and haunt you. Fear will paralyze you and every subsequent pencil or brush stroke coming out of you will be conditioned by that fundamentally painful question every artist has asked him/herself at one point or another: am I good enough to do this?

For a seasoned painter, a white canvas is a wild animal that needs to be tamed. It is an empty road with no speed limit. It is pure emotion, endless possibilities. It is an adrenaline rush, the trigger of that creative force that goes beyond human intellect. An exhilarating feeling trumped only by the accomplishment of the finished piece and the satisfaction of a work well done. The beast has been tamed and you have survived to paint another day.

But for me, a white canvas is not only boring, but mostly just plain annoying. A white canvas is like looking at the sky right after getting your pupils dilated at the eye doctor's office. It is that dreadful glare on your TV that keeps making you adjust the drapes. It is that awfully loud club music that will not let you have a decent conversation. A white canvas is a distraction that needs to be eliminated.

As a painter, one of your jobs is to mimic light through pigments. That job gets even more complicated when you have a light reflecting surface messing with your eyes and therefore, your perception of the pigments being applied on the surface. When using a white canvas, sometimes I found myself going back and reworking values, because once I covered the whole surface with paint, some colors would seem different, either not as light or not as dark as I thought they were.

Even when I got that situation under control, I still did not care that much about white canvases. I have too many related pet peeves, I guess.

I was brought up on the school of thought that works a painting progressively. Every piece of the puzzle gets worked at gradually. But many other people work in a more sectioned way, painting little details, finishing them and then moving on to the next element within the painting. When I used to do this, I often found myself lost in the particulars and the painting as a whole suffered a lack of cohesiveness. While I respect and admire this and every other painting approach, I cannot bring myself to paint a flower and finish it, for example, while leaving the rest of the canvas blank anymore. It drives me nuts!


Now, this is more like it!

So, all my surfaces get the same treatment. I fill my backgrounds with many layers of color to create a neutral environment more suitable for painting. I purposely choose different shades of gray that will either complement or contrast whatever it is I'm going to paint on top. I mix these gray shades with lots of colors, trying to gain depth, in case I decide to leave some parts of it untouched. My backgrounds can almost be abstract paintings on their own.

As you might have probably already figured out, I'm all about demystifying art. As silly as it may sound, all it takes is filling the canvas with a couple of layers of paint and it will instantly look less scary. Once that pristine, immaculate white surface has disappeared, it is no longer a terrifying new white canvas. It is now just another unfinished painting...

Cuz' that's not scary at all or anything...

Close Ups Update (I lost count)...

Well, this painting is just as time consuming as I thought it would be! This is where experience kicks in. I have to stay focused and visualize the finished piece. If I let its still "halfway cooked" look get to me, I'd start to freak out. You know, that is the recipe for artistic frustration (along with constant streams of rejection, but we ain't talking about that now). Look at that, after all there IS an upside from getting older...

Teaser detail. The whole thing is looking good, I promise.

Right at this stage, I like to indulge into some detail painting. For this work, I chose to bring some of the background bulbs and leaves to an almost finished state. This helps me visualize the finished piece better.

In the end, you would think the hardest part is to mimic the Matilija Poppy's delicate and intricate nature, but it all comes down to the environment. The whole, in this project in particular, will be more than the sum of its parts.

And for the sad news, it's looking like this will be the only new work I'll be submitting for the juried show. Time just has not been on my side. I would rather invest more time into making this painting even stronger.

Another project in progress...

The ADD kicked in and I needed to paint something else while waiting for the flowers to dry. Well, not really. It is very easy to get overwhelmed by a daunting task, so taking a little "break" from it is always good.

I believe in letting works mature, not physically, but internally. As soon as I feel the need to rethink paths and maybe approach the painting differently, I know it is time for a break. I have done many works in my time and I am always updating my process, looking for a way to get a better result. So this is something I came up with to avoid the feeling of hitting the wall and getting stuck.


Oh, those beach paintings keep popping up!


I also try to include my contemporary project in my working schedule as much as possible. This work in particular is part of something much bigger. There are actually five of these I'm working on at the same time.

Yes, wearing different hats can sometimes backfire and be even more overwhelming, but as an artist you have to learn how to put stuff on hold and pick it up on the fly when you come back. Life does not care if you are inspired, you will still have to leave and go do time consuming stuff every day. So, you better be prepared to get back to business, quickly.

I actually had to drop a class to keep up with this painting schedule, a very important class I might add. But I'm a man on a mission and I can't be stopped. Well, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Close Ups Update

This is the part where I get really antsy. I can visualize the finished piece already yet I can't get rush things! Patience and determination are key in this stage of the project.

After working some volume on the petals, I decided to start bringing some color to the work. The idea is to gradually bring the foliage to life while working the Poppy's overall appearance. After these many layers of color, I need to watch my details and make sure I'm not losing them. Once I have achieved a more elaborated background, I will start incorporating the surrounding green overtones into the flower.


 This painting is about 30% done


Of course, that is easier said than done. I am glad I had a couple of sessions this week to work on this, though. I definitely got a lot done and I'm just a tad behind schedule... I am also painting something completely different that I hope to share in the near future. It is a part of my recent contemporary endeavors, something I'm putting together in the hopes of a future show. Well, at least that's the plan!

Now, back to painting!