Thursday, February 17, 2011

The beginning


Through the Grass
Original oil painting 18x24"
by Susan Roux


I almost didn't post this painting. I just completed it with my class and it looks so different from the series I'm working on in my private time, that I hesitated to show it.

It's interesting when your work evolves and you're a teacher, because what you're teaching still resembles your older stuff. I think of my galleries and wonder, what they will do with these varying looks? I'm not sure they can even hang together...

But there is a story behind this work.

Class started this painting before Christmas. It's been a long road, between cancellations for snow days and holidays. It was also a good challenge for both students and myself to direct them through this complicated scene. Fields of wild grasses are one of my favorite subjects. How I love to let my paintbrush dip in colors and scribble the canvas. Most of it is spontaneous and therefore hard to describe to a student. The other difficulty was having several figures. Those figures are where my little story lies.

My studio is downstairs. It's too small to teach in, so I hold my classes in the dining room. Every week after classes, I'd remove the plastic from my table, replace the tablecloth and assemble the chairs around it. As time passed and the number of classes increased (I'm teaching 5 a week now) my dining room became a second studio. It's a rare occasion when I pull out the wall-matching tablecloth and replace the chairs. As one class rolls into another and I try to paint on my own, the partially painted canvasses collect. I often place them against the hallway wall where the staircase is. Some of them make it all the way down to the real studio, but lately most of them line the hall. It's sort of like a floor-level gallery.

One day as my husband came up the stairs, the figures in the above painting were directly in his sight. I hadn't painted figures in my work in awhile at the time and he complimented me on them. He seemed so delighted that when Don Hatfield called that week, I mentioned having put figures in my work. I asked if he wanted me to send him an image? Totally expecting him to give me an enthusiastic yes, I was quite surprised by his response.

Rather than ask to see the figures, he began to talk to me about the danger of painting figures in a scene. He spoke of how they too often jump out at you and in actuality they should be part of the scene. I remembered how he taught us to let our strokes move from the background into our portraits and reverse. My mind started to wonder (like it doesn't already do enough of that on it's own...) and inspiration emerged.

I pulled out a fresh canvas and a photo of a girl. I had one thing in mind. Make the figure be part of the background. Frolicking is what I created and this is how my latest series started... The big difference was not drawing my figure. When I do, I want to stay within the lines. This time I began with paint, not a pencil.

So it's for this reason that I've posted this painting. Sometimes it's nice to know where and why something new began.

This brings us back to Champagne Thursday... which will be held next week, February 24 at 5:oo pm. The address is 94 Shore Drive, Freeport, Maine. Please come. Admission is champagne and an appetizer. I'll be away painting all next week. Sure hope this sinus thing moves on before Saturday!


21 comments:

  1. Hi, I love your work, I love the colors and light that you give very good job congratulations, greetings.

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  2. It looks exactly like my familly country in the middle of France, in "Ardèche". Going for a walk by the prarie... Nice painting anyway ! Still following your amazing work.

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  3. Ficou linda a pintura ainda bem que você postou, assim podemos apreciá-la. Abraços.

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  4. I love the landscape and figures, everything create a totally fresh spring atmosphere. Your classes sound like fun and I am sure they are very enjoyable! I showed one of your pieces on my Facebook page, had to share it with friends!

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  5. Hello Susan,
    Beautiful work ( gostei muito da pintura. Seu estilo impressionista está a cada dia mais maduro. )
    congratulations

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  6. Susan I love the advice Don gave you..I have needed that too!! It gives me some ideas for future paintings because I always wanted to add figures. I think of the impressionists paintings and how their figures appear in their landscapes and urbanscapes and that advice seems so appropriate. Lovely painting. I wish I could come to your champagne party. Have fun!

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  7. I love this painting.... and the title is just perfect. Running down the path through the grasses is just..... FUN!!

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  8. Je suis heureuse de la voir achevée cette peinture... Elle me touche particulièrement puisque nous étions en promenade ensemble lorsque nous avons pris ces photos qui t'ont servie de modèle...
    Et quelle belle balade, n'est-ce pas!...
    Je l'aime beaucoup, car je t'y retrouve beaucoup... et quoi que tu en dises, je trouve qu'il y a une sensibilité et une vie dans cette peinture.
    Bisous

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  9. yes....you've made these people a thoughtful group within the landscape...they look as if they belong there. Beautiful painting!

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  10. Susan, this is really beautiful and to my mind is very similar to your latest series. Even though it is a girl and a boy in front of the mom, this reminds me of the many times I would take my daughters out to enjoy nature walks with me. They never enjoyed it, alas, but I always did. And that glorious field of wildflowers! And my beloved trees too! I see this is people decorating the landscape; not the landscape decorating people. To that end, I think you accomplished Don's advice wonderfully.

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  11. Another marvellous marvellous post Susan thank you once again.

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  12. Beautiful! Funny that we don't always get the responses from people that we think. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. what a great comment about the figures being part of the landscape, thanks for sharing, I love Hatfield, his work is wonderful!

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  14. Thanks for the visit. Great work here. I like Dan Hatfield's work too.

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  15. What a wonderful painting, the people are perfect in this beautiful landscape, and I like the distance of the whole scene.

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  16. Wonderful
    work
    thank you for sharing

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  17. Sue -- great for you -- your are painting from your heart -- I can see it in your colors and the feeling of this painting -- I also love the one below with the woman in the water -- painting can be so much fun!!!

    Diane

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  18. Another great job Susan. You have really focused on the subject matter.

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  19. What a beautiful painting! So easy and so difficult. It is a wealth of colors, but at the same time, so light that transport us to the scene.
    Thanks for visiting my blog, but I'm an apprentice.

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  20. I know nothing of art but the beauty of your paintings always overwhelms me:)

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