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K O'Connor(1939-2039)

Worked up from site notes. 
Although it was an overcast fall day my objective was to catch the coolness in the atmosphere. Time has turned the varnish on this painting yellow so I played with the electronic image to duplicate my original image. 

Note: the centralist composition overlayed with triangles.

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K O'Connor(1939-2039)

From My Sketch Book  1998 
Two Studies for:  Bus People Series  
Ottawa Ont.  Canada 
7.5in x 5.5in 
Coloured pencil: 
from memory and imagination 

I take the bus to and from work and  I could not resist thinking about the images of people and their clothes that change over the four seasons. 

I wanted to use simple forms and colour to experiment with the separation theme. The compositional problem was to maintain unity even though the field was divided in half down the center. I think it ended up with enough shape and colour  variety between sameness and difference elements to maintain pictorial interest and yet express the thematic idea of separate and  together.

Spirit Image:    Do we really die? Is this life all there is?  A shaman answers these questions by creating a spirit sculpture that will become the earthly home of a  departed spirit who will thus remain with the family, and continue to provide for their needs. 

The shaman through ritual meditation and avoidance of surface appearance  fuses the materials at hand into an image of the departed's soul. 
 

It is the letting-go, not knowing ahead of time the next shape, texture, colour, or form; that letting-go turns you into an observer watching in amazement as the creative ego plays over the visual field. 
 

My objective is to remove any sexual dominance from the nude sketch by focusing on the relationship between the forms rather than their symbolic sexual connotation / meaning. I experienced a certain feeling of being in the sketched body, as I was drawing  which I think comes through. That's my shaman nature trying to fuse with the object being created. 

Many artists seem to think that the objective of painting the nude is to explore eroticism. For example HOPPER, (American 20th cent), adjusted his style of painting nudes when he realized that they were too sensual, (sexual) and interfered with the overall mood of his painting. 
 

I no longer paint in oil due to the smell and clean-up requirements.  

This painting, of which I only have a small yellowed photo, was worked up from site notes. My colour theories were more intutive than systematic at that point in time.

This oil study has been badly damaged over the years. I finally found it in the possesion of one of my brothers who had left on the dirt floor of  his shed. It was painted using vertical brush strokes.  My objective was to create a unity through common direction of brush stroke.  

At this point in time I had not begun to develop my colour theories. The shadow along the side of the face is too dark and tends to cut the face from the neck and ear.

Quick sketch done while sitting in a row-boat. The little island is almost animated into a group of animals. 

This plaque was the result of my interest in primitive South Americian work. I hand sculpted it in clay. It was part of a series of works resulting from studying methods of hand building pots without a wheel.