Shapeshifting: Adding and Subtracting

Henri Matisse is one of my great teachers.  First, I was attracted to his linear simplified drawings that showed form through line rather than modulation indicating light and shadow.  Equally intriguing was his use of color patterns, relationships and spontaneous composition.  While Monet was, in a sense, a slave to nature (Rene Schwob), Matisse submits to nature only in order to make use of it. A clear example of being inspired by a subject and then altering it in the composition several times before being satisfied is evident in the photographs of states I-XXII Reclining Nude that he sent to Etta Cone his friend and a collector.  Matisse modified the painting twenty-two times before settling on the defininative 26 x 26 inch painting.  To see the twenty states Matisse documented go to this site: https://studylib.net/doc/5413421/reclining-nude-by-henri-matisse/.

I, too, shapeshift my collages and paintings before settling on a composition that feels right to me.  It’s a process that is sometimes disconcerting and sometimes enjoyable.  The decisions often take weeks to make, if not years.  The one I am currently working on is Running Girl, which began as Maiden and over months was transformed into a figure entirely different except for the face.  Most of the ideas for this transformation came from working on many 5 x 7 collages of “Garden Queen” figures. The acrylic paintings include collage elements of paper and lace.  I amplified the complexity of spaces around the figure in the changed painting.  There are about about five states in between the first and the second image.