This post documents a part of my painting practice involving the over-painting of older work to create new work; a common occurrence in painters' studios, but generally with the intent to deny or cover over the history that is buried beneath the new layers of paint. My intention is to create new paintings that acknowledge the previous painting while allowing the canvases to assume a new identity on the surface. I've been working on this piece for just over a year and will be exhibiting during March 2017 at the University of Rhode Island Providence Campus. The original paintings were done in 2003-2005 and were primarily acrylic and enamel paint markers on 5 inch x 1.5 inch x 5 inch canvases. The paintings used in this work are no longer visible on my professional website; however, for an idea of the work I was making during that time visit http://art-robynthomas.com/section/442385-Painting-2000-2014.html.
I knew I would be creating the new work in oil paint so I began this work by first painting over the canvas with a few layers of clear acrylic medium. This was done primarily to seal the enamel paint pen paint which dissolves when in contact with the solvents in oil paint. It also allowed me to add a layer of texture, which would create little windows to the painting beneath the surface once I began sanding away the layers of oil paint I would apply. Although the original canvases were individual paintings I knew they would be grouped in this work to form a single work of multiple parts. As I reached the end of the work the final configuration emerged as a type of timeline documenting a life. Through the use of a mirror backing I add not only a unifying base for the canvases but also small strips in which the viewer may catch a glimpse of his or her self. I have been working with this additional element of the mirror since Spring 2015. Images of work using mirror as part of my exhibition Fractal Edge can be viewed at http://art-robynthomas.com/section/424261-Fractal-Edge.html. A more recent work incorporating mirror with the questions of identity, what is original and what is a copy, is Hollow Valley (approx. 24 inches x 36 inches). This work was begun at the same time as Und das Lied. It has been on view this month in conjunction with Sonata for Psyche Tattooing as part of the Adjacent to Life pop-up gallery project. Here is a photo of that work in situ.
What follows is a series of photos documenting the painting process of Und das Lied from January 2016 to January 2017.
Unfortunately just before I took this photo piece was dropped in the studio and the mirror broke.
"Mein Leben ist nicht diese steile Stunde,
darin du mich so eilen siehst.
Ich bin ein Baum vor meinem Hintergrunde,
ich bin nur einer meiner vielen Munde
und jener, welcher sich am frühsten schließt.
Ich bin die Ruhe zwischen zweien Tönen,
die sich nur schlecht aneinander gewöhnen:
denn der Ton Tod will sich erhöhn -
Aber im dunklen Intervall versöhnen
sich beide zitternd.
Und das Lied bleibt schön.”
Rainer Maria Rilke Das Stundenbuch (1899)