Pictorial Explanation of Creative Process Step 3

THE EMERGING IMAGE - Step 3

Now the work begins with drawing and painting on a prepared wood panel. There are sections, which seem sparsely drawn such as the center. Note the problem of the center was basically solved in the ink drawing so there was no need to redraw it. Whereas other parts such as the railing and hands are more carefully drawn. This was because the railing and hands emerged as central to the meaning of this image only after the first two sketches were completed.

 They need- ed to be more carefully crafted. The left hand has a watch signifying our attempt to rationalize a measured sense of time. As if keeping our appointments 'on time' just as the sun keeps its relentless appointments with its daily rise and fall, gives us a measured control of our own futures. The right hand has a pencil signifying the act of creating such a scene. As if the act of drawing a sunset image is actually living that existential moment in a realm created by the artist. And of course the hands show an actual person seeing that sunset but not drawing it. As if the perceptual moment reigns supreme as some kind of direct veritable experience of the moment. The significance of this painting is about the complex relationships among various kinds of times. A technical note: It is more efficient in a realistic sense to paint from the background to the foreground so I begin with the sky. An aesthetic note: According to the English Romantic landscape painter, John Constable, "The sky is the organ of sentiment". I agree and have discovered that character of the sky pervades the character of the painting. For these two reasons I begin painting the sky.

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