Blue Kachina

This blog thing isn't all its cracked up to be. Today will be the fourth attempt to post photos of the painting I'm currently working on. The "Blue Kachina" is intended for the MasterWorks exhibition in the Spring of 2007 ... if it doesn't sell first. My intention here is to show a series of pictures from first conception through the second 3 hour painting session. The problem has been trying to upload and format pictures and text so that they are in the correct order. Past attempts have failed when photos "vanished", and because I can't figure out how to move pictures/text blocks.This was the first sketch, and only contains the seed of the conceptual idea.

Sketch two begins to expand on the idea of the Blue Kachina. At this stage I was focused on composition and rythmn. Verticals and details begin to emerge. At this stage I was thinking about adding some pueblo style buildings in the lower right of the field. What developed instead was the suggestion of Kokopelli, and the pueblo faded away.

This is a color test executed with pastel on paper. I've move the center of interest further to the right of the field, and ran the Kachina off the paper. It was at this stage that I became convinced that the background should be flat and in a warm color. The rythmn set up in the sketches remains, but is continuiong to evolve. Too much green and there isn't yet enough integration of the elements. Dig those wacky feathers .... oh well, this was just a test anyway.

I put this drawing into a reasonably nice frame I got at a garage sale for 5 buckeroos, but managed to break the glass and put a small tear in the top of the drawing. Now its worthless, except as a bit of history.

After three hours painting, this is what I had. This painting is on 20X16 masonite mounted on pine, and painted all the way around the edges (not shown). The paint went onto the surface with a lot of turpentine, and so dried with a dull finish. You can see that the elements are being reduced and simplified to accentuate each of them. The Kachina's red cloak developed into the shaman's mask that you see without conscious intent. At this stage there are still problems to resolve, like the indefinite area around waist high on the Kachina image.

This is after another 3 hour session several days later when the pigments had begun to set up. At this point I'm using almost pure lindseed oil and a gel to preserve the brilliancy of the colors, and to stiffen the pigment to better hold brush texture. The colors and surface texture are now close to what was planned. I'm relatively pleased with the yellow/red/orange background, and with the Kachina's head, cloak and body. I'm contemplating making the shaman's mask less obvious, and I'm still uncertain what to do with that unresolved light area at the Kachina's waist. The lower third of the painting is coming along, but still needs work. This is getting pretty close, but there is alot of work to be done yet on the sides not shown here, and a number of smaller "corrections" that probably no one would ever notice if they weren't told about them.