Wednesday, March 11, 2009

she...

oil painting on birch panel
10 inches square
$800.

and then there is the flipside of the last posted painting, i've had this completed for some time and before that it was a fully planned sketch the only slight change being the swan being white rather than black and still no title. i'm thinking "she..." might just be it. i'm in the midle of a bit of a change when it comes to the titles and not quite sure where it's leading me. i began naming the people in the paintings quite a number of years ago feeling that it gave the pieces another way for the viewer to connect to the piece and another way for it to seem more meaningful but lately i've been feeling it actually does the opposite. "she" and "he" feel more elegant and personal to me than a specific name and a specific name also does things to the time setting of the paintings that i'm not so sure of so for now "she..." it is.

i will keep naming the little portrait blocks no matter what though because that's just fun.

9 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Amanda, this is so beautiful! And I like your thoughts on naming pieces. Naming always adds something to the piece, something different for every viewer I think.

Anonymous said...

I love the names. iT seemed to connect me to each painting. Your names were and are great. I will miss the names.I still love your work but will be sad of the loss of beautiful names.
NANCY

Anonymous said...

i love this...would buy it in a second if I could afford to buy art! :)

Anonymous said...

'she' is beautiful x

amanda blake said...

thank you all.
don't worry nancy the names won't be gone just used when needed rather than always. i think that's the direction i'm going... i felt like i had been using them because that's what i do rather than naming the people because they needed names and i don't ever want to do anything in my art that isn't necessary, does that make sense? so sometimes the people will need names but sometimes it just isn't something needed in the piece and the vagueness is what the piece needs. i just don't ever want to be doing anything that is a formula, but when i came to the realization that formula is my main problem with the names i also decided one of my next big paintings is going to be girls in a boat with birds and poppies and wings and crowns and boys in sailor suits and imaginary friends and men in suits and each and every one of them will have names, why not just go with it.

Kathrine said...

Hi Amanda,

Congrats on making it into "Traditional Home"! I love your work.

Anonymous said...

Your work inspires me. I love the direction you are headed and can't wait to see them. They sound grand.I can imagine the names swirling around in your mind at night.
You do so much work.I don't know how you get the time.
Nancy

amanda blake said...

thanks kathrine, seems everyone's seem it but me, think i'll be going to powell's today to try to get a copy.
and nancy sometimes i'm not sure how i find the time either, i do know it involves a constant struggle of determining how much coffee i can have in my system at all times without shaking from too much caffeine. also this time of year i seem so much more prolific as i just go through my studio and finish every piece that was started through out the rest of the year in a desperate attempt to fill my art show booths.

Margaret Meyer said...

Just discovered your blog. Your work is lovely.