For Better or Worse: Sacrificing parts of a painting
Graham Sutherland said,
“In painting, you have to destroy in order to gain... you have got to sacrifice something you are quite pleased with in order to get something better. Of course, it's a risk.”
If you want something great, you must sacrifice something good, yup even the really good. Merriam-Webster defined sacrifice as: “destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else. Something given up or lost.” As an artist, I get to make the decision of what part of the painting becomes the sacrifice. The area I paint over, the line that missed its mark, the color that isn’t making the other colors sing-those are the simple sacrifice decisions.
But Sutherland said the “quite pleased with” parts also get sacrificed.
Ouch.
That is HARD to do. It is the lush blend of colors, the energetic marks, the collage papers that were strategically placed over many hours, the curve of a figure or even the whole surface gets surrendered.
It is risky.
A risk I frequently navigate and I feel as though I am rarely succeeding at accomplishing. Once sacrificed, there is no going back. Over a year and half ago I started on a large 36 inch by 48 inch canvas and have continually sacrificed parts of it to the point where I am debating either to remove it from the stretcher bars or to leave the current painting on it as is for a time.
The Beginning…sort of
Here I begin the ritual of sacrificing parts of the painting.
Eager to forge ahead with sacrificing, I rushed through the phase where ideas, the area of interest, and materials need time to germinate and to be cultivated in the sacred studio space.
Forward I went, surrendering bit by bit to the painting pyre wondering what was to come next from the deep realm of intuition. Looking back over the many iterations in preparation for this article, I noticed some stages I really like now but in that moment I couldn’t see where I needed to stop.
This canvas is an example of me cramming about ten paintings onto one. That’s frustrating. Yet, I see experimentation is every image.
I had tried cellophane- only to discover paint doesn’t stay on it and is horrible at removing from a canvas once glued down.
Some spray paint found its way on the canvas
Collage papers made a return only to be completely sacrificed for a green.
A female figure appeared is a couple different stages
I removed the collage papers and so many layers of paint.
Think pink! And it covers the entire canvas…AGAIN
The destruction hasn’t ceased. I keep on sacrificing to bring forth what really wants to be experienced. In the process, I know I will take risks-but the juicy parts are within that risk. Where will this painting finally end up?
On YouTube:
I show the stages of the painting as well as me continuing to work on the canvas.
Click HERE to watch the video.
