I had one friend go with me a separate time, and ask me how I felt about them. And I realized, as is often the case with artists, I was less than satisfied. Mainly, because I ended up working much more tightly than I'd like. The small size didn't lend itself to rough gestural style, just ended up looking unfinished, so I'd invariably resort to refining the painting.
But tight realism is never my goal. I want to give impressions. Gestures. Lines & marks that sparkle and dance and inspire imagination. I don't know how well I succeeded in that. And it made me realize I'd much rather be drawing with a stick and fingers than painting with a brush. But my original goal was to get better at painting, and I think I did, from a technical standpoint.
Seeing them all in their chronology, with brief descriptions, is interesting. Not everyone caught on, or viewed them in order, but many did, and stopped to read the signage at the beginning:
“EN ROUTE: PAINTING THROUGH A PANDEMIC”: ABOUT The EXHIBIT
HOW IT STARTED: New Year 2020: I ordered 50 9x12 panels and some 6x6 little canvases with an intent and self-challenge: to improve my painting skills and sense of style with ‘a paint study a week’for a year. Maybe experiment with styles of Impressionists, Post Impressionists, German expressionists. See what happens. And in late February I began.
THEN COVID19 ARRIVED. Life changed. And these paintings shifted from an academic exercise to both a visual diary, colored by the isolation, anxiety, and adaptation of this time, and therapy, a focus, something to do that brought grounding.
THE RESULTS have not been one every week, but a sequence nonetheless. They wind through a year and a half, recording the seasons’ impressions, experiences, thoughts and moods. Some reflect on memories of other times, other places. Predominantly, though, they focus on my home environment inside and out during isolation.
THE SIZE rather hampered my normal gestural approach, but has still been a growing experience. These are no great masterpieces. They are just small works, but with a surprisingly big positive effect on my mental and emotional health. As I shared them on line over the months, it became evident that they affected others this way as well.
WE NEED ART, especially during strange and stressful times. Art awakens us. Deepens us. Encourages us. Carries us forward together. I hope you find it to be so, here among these humble offerings.
-----------------Lee Baker DeVore"
All the paintings and their descriptions/titles are listed in the previous 4 blogs, so rather than repeat all that, I'd encourage you to visit those posts. I hope you will. (To view chronologically, start with the July 28 2020 post first.)