Il Gelsomino - II

sabato, 22 febbraio 2025

I created this piece for the Putnam Art Council's second annual Art Heist. I wanted to create a piece that spoke to Pari, while also showcasing the changes that have occurred in my style over the past year. This piece, when I first attempted to approach it last year, was quite challenging for me due to the numerous different textures and angles.

This little house sits at the bottom of a hill, right on the lower giro in Pari, Italia. In fact, the very things that make this piece so interesting to paint, are also the same things that challenged me so much - at least initially. One thing that helped immensely has been my practice of drawing small children's blocks. These exercises have helped (and help) me get a feel for the most basic forms, along with the shading and distortions from different angles.

Perhaps one of the most important things that I have learned and continue to practice, is the sensation of drawing "into" the page, rather than attempting to create lines at the right angle to convey a sense of shape. As odd as it sounds, and is even odder to write about, I have finally been able to capture a sense of "drawing into" the page rather than "drawing on" the page. This approach has made it much easy for me to create a sense of depth with complex forms - even when they overlap with one another.

Yours in inspiration,
Michael Weaver