finally my final painting

Well, back in April I explained that I was working on an homage to the infamous Pablo Picasso for my final project in painting... so I finally got around to taking a picture of it for you, my viewers (whom I can probably count on one hand... but no matter!)

Unfortunately the picture really distorted the color despite my efforts to correct it... although there are a lot of cooler hues involved, the over all color of the piece is a very red-violet and a lot of oranges.

Basically this piece only have two elements to it: color and texture.

The colors I used were all very bold, oranges, violets, reds, and blues... but all the colors were acrylic washes - applied through various stages of the process (some wet-on-wet, other wet-on-dry). The gesso itself actually has sand rubbed into it to add to the over all texture of the piece. The words and figure were drawn on using acrylic paint put into a ziploc bag almost like a cake-decorating bag. It was rather fun to use an unexpected technique and my professor thought it quite clever. After the words and figure dried I did countless washes over them, creating this really interesting effect that left parts of the piece untouched - which I really really liked.

The figure is actually a blind contour, something I thought would mirror, but not replicate, the drawing style of Picasso. The quote says 'I am always doing that which I can not do in order that I may learn to do it'... this is something that I struggled with personally in the past (giving up on a new technique or lesson if it didn't immediately prove fruitful), and I felt like Picasso easily embodied a lot of the qualities that I lack, so it felt appropriate to use this quote for my piece. Furthermore, I copied the quote twice because it almost felt like a mantra, something that bears to be repeated to yourself as you try to learn its meaning...


Overall, I wanted this piece to be something that was difficult for me - and let me tell you it was. Its lack of content was what bothered me the most, and the fact that it only took me about 3 of the 5 weeks we had to work on it was the WORST part because I continually wanted to add to it - which is another weakness of mine. Picasso never worried about what others would think of his work, he would have an idea and the go for it, something that managed to occur with this painting. I tried not to over-do it, or try to hard, and I actually really liked the way it came out. I'm proud of it, to say the least, but I realize it's not a masterpiece.