Finishing the paintings for two New Hampshire summer exhibits has taken me away from my present work (AVA Gallery & Long River Studios). "Window" is a good painting, but I felt I was completing an idea formed months ago. I want to work in the present. I have been exhausted this week from the activity surrounding the final touches applied to "Window," and the emotions of delivering it to a juried show so it may be judged. Talking about "being judged," the local newspaper, "The Valley News," reviewed the "Long River Studio" Lyme 250th Anniversary Show. The headlines read, "Art in Lyme: Where Are All the People?" The reviewer, Alex Hanson, noted only one of the works in the exhibit had a human figure and it was my "Lyme's Soldier." This is what Mr. Hanson wrote: "One of Mehrbach's paintings, Lyme's Soldier, features the only human figure in the exhibition, the granite Union soldier on the town green. Mehrbach has given this traditional form an aggrieved demeanor. The painting is effective, if a bit heavy-handed. That's right, the lone human shape in the show is a painting of a statue." Without knowing it, this reviewer points out my personal failure. I had played with the idea of making portrait drawings of two of my favorite people in Lyme, both long time residents of the town and both over 90 years old. I should have followed my instincts and done this; it would have been more fun. Instead I just "did the job." I am disappointed in myself.
Yesterday I found myself futzing around, looking for personal reality. The two drawings came hard (you can see the many erasures around the women's heads). I hope today will be more comfortable. OK, I have to stop obsessing. I heard the novelist Ann Patchett speak on NPR. She said she finishes a novel, holds on to it for three weeks, delivers it to her publisher, then never reads it again, and never worries about it again. In some ways I am like Patchett, but today I find myself much like the great English painter Joseph William Mallord Turner. I feel as Turner felt immediately upon delivering a work to exhibition. Turner was said to have worked on minor enhancements of his paintings at the openings of his exhibitions. In other words, when Turner viewed his "finished" paintings he knew they were never done and could always be improved; Turner always found problems which could be corrected. Today I am wondering why Turner and I sometimes share this inability to let go. "Window" will never be satisfactorily complete. I now think I understand. Turner's work, and my painting, "Window," are atmospheric paintings. The nuances of atmospheric images are subtle and complex, so much so that comprehending them is an endless game of give and take.
Today I show you the final version of "Window," with my signature found near the upper left. I do not like this reproduction, and again ask you to view art "in person." After "Window" I show JWM Turner's great masterpiece, an image of the Houses of Parliament burning in 1834. You can see the reason the French Impressionists loved Turner's work. It is all atmosphere and immediacy—what could be more immediate than a burning building? To finish this discussion I leave you with an image of a wonderful atmospheric painting by Claude Monet, one his many Rouen Cathedral studies. Monet found a way to make an atmospheric painting quickly, without worries over the perfect finish, which negates my claim that it is the atmospheric element which invites unending revisions. Maybe it is the desire to tell an story, in which atmosphere is an important ingredient, which makes "Window," and "The Burning of the Houses of Parliament," paintings with no endings. BTW: I prefer the Turner to the Monet. I have to tell you, there is no guarantee the painting "Window" will be accepted in this year's AVA Gallery Summer Show. I have had a painting in this exhibit for the last 10 years, with one exception. I visited the exhibit on the year of my exclusion and found the exhibited work to be abstract and cool; my work did not fit into the juror's concept for that summer's exhibition. This year's juror is Katherine Hart, Interim Director of the Hood Museum of Art and Dartmouth College's Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming. I do not know her. Notification cards will be mailed on June 20, I will receive the card on June 21, and I will report to you the results in my blog post of June 22. I will also summit the first drawing from 06/08/2011.
Yesterday I fixed up minor problematic details of "Window." Today I will spray "retouch varnish" on the spots which have lost their gloss because the paint has dried (this is particularly noticeable with dark paint, mostly blacks, which dry quickly). Yesterday I also made one drawing, posted below. Tomorrow I will post the definitive photo reproduction of the finished "Window." Yes, its over! I write "I am finished" with the painting "Window," but truth be told, there are a few minor details to make better. In the reproduction you can't see these extremely minor problems, like the way the white of the left side of the window frame meets the yellow of the outdoors (there is a slight change in value of the yellow next to the white because some dark, still wet paint, was dragged into the yellow as I re-painted the hand). I want there to be no value gradation as the light on the side of window frame touches the light on the ground of the outside. I won't name each of the other minor problems, but all are of the same magnitude, each requiring 5 minutes of my time, which might add up to a total of 1 hour. Then there's the signature!
This painting, and one drawing, will be delivered to AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH tomorrow. I can never be sure, but it feels like today. So much of the painting "Window" has been solved, but there is the obvious arm and hand, foot, and tree to make right and good. I have nothing else to say today, except the drawing posted today is more fun to look at than it was making. Yesterday's drawing was definitely a "warm-up" drawing, and shows me thinking about hands and feet as I was about to move into "Window." I continue to feel the man's hand and the woman's left foot are not right. Today I make them right.
It was a good day for the painting "Window." I am going to reduce my comments to just that. I want to get out to the studio and finish this painting. I am very conscious its due date is just 4 days away. I hope it has a couple of days to dry before delivery. The one drawing from yesterday is actually a two day drawing, started two days ago with the scratches I mentioned in yesterday's post.
Yesterday I scratched on a sketch pad for about 20 minutes with nothing substantial to report. However, I can go back two days and show you work from Thursday June 9, including in-roads on the painting "Window." Yesterday did include the opening of the Lyme, New Hampshire 250th Anniversary Show at Long River Studios. Both my paintings (“Lyme Soldier” and “Smarts Mountain”) were big hits. I want to get into the studio as soon as possible today, so I am not going to comment on the work posted today. I am very aware that the due day for the AVA Gallery Summer Show is only 5 days away. I need to finish “Window.” The anxiety awoke me a 4:30 AM this morning. I hope to report substantial success with “Window” tomorrow.
I was wrong about finding the time and comfort to work on the painting "Window." So, I drew! And I produced one of my best drawings! Yesterday's first drawing is now the current leading candidate to go to the AVA Gallery Summer Show.
This problem, me finding the time to paint, is indicative of my personal-life encroaching on my art-life. The next few days have demands on my personal-life as well, and I fear I will be distracted by them. I very much want to find a large block of time to finish "Window." I am focusing on finishing "Window" because I believe "Window" is the painting meant to go to the AVA Gallery Summer Show (due for delivery on June 15). A note on yesterday's drawing #2: I apprenticed to the painter Seymour Leichman from 1973 to 1977. I remember Seymour showing me Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of Anne and Mary. Seymour told me to look at the legs in the drawing, and asked if I could tell which legs belonged to Mary, and which to Anne. Before I could answer, or even figure it out, Seymour said it did not matter, as the quality of the drawing made it unimportant. It was the composition, rhythms, and forms, which animated the drawing, and not the visual determination of which legs belonged to Mary or Anne. This was an important lesson, and I believe it is demonstrated in yesterday's drawing #2. Da Vinci's cartoon is shown after my work. It did not happen. Confusion reigned in my life, but not in my drawing. I had to stop and start in the studio because of periodic calls from my regular-life (i.e. NOT my art-life). So drawing was the only reasonable option. For these two drawings I went to my larger format (11 X 14 inches) and produced two masterworks. They shine with brilliance, particularly the first one. The second drawing dulls in more ways then form and light; it also does not carry the high level of emotional spirit exhibited in the first drawing. Today I hope to get back into working on the painting "Window." There is not a lot in my regular-life to distract me, so I am betting, with 5 to 2 odds, I will paint on "Window" today.
Yesterday I sat in front of the painting "Window" but found no desire to solve its problems. Instead I made two drawings; the first was sloppy and uninspired, the second much better with beautifully formed hands. So I am waiting the urge to finish "Window." I believe that will come today, but I have been wrong about this before.
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April 2024
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