Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Figmont

Here's a series of four views of the same ridge, not as it actually is but as what it became on the paper as I worked. While I'm throwing around the word "actually", this ridge doesn't actually exist. I guess I should call it Figment Ridge. Or maybe Figmont.

It seems to me that the differing color and value of the land make it appear to radically change from one painting to the next, so that any sense of an actual place is lost. I must say, watching that difference evolve made for a strangely dissociative experience. To a geologist, it may appear to be a continental shift and to a chemist, an atomic shift.

Come to think of it, psychiatry is all about shifting figments.








16 comments:

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

I like to see this serie all togheter, it is better, wonderfull works you have done

loriann signori said...

oooooooh Sam now we're talking! Love 'em!, especially the first. All that warmth with that brilliant piece of blue. Nice.
Figment Ridge..heehee

SamArtDog said...

I agree that it's best to see them all, Laura.

Loriann, I like the first one best, too. Of course it's the last one I did. I had to scrape some of that chroma off.

Cynthia Schelzig said...

What color and you make me laugh with your wonderful writing....

Bonnie Luria said...

Even if they're all a pigment of your imagination, who could argue with an imagination as lively as yours.
Love this series.

Double "D" said...

Yeah, the first one, definitely the first one, not the second one, but the first one, yeah definitely the first one. Go Fig-ure! Fig-mentally speaking that is!

SamArtDog said...

Cynnie--
I might be better off having my hands tied behind my back when I have to choose just a few colors.

Bonnie--
That lively imagination can get me in trouble. And has.

DD--
A neighborhood kid thought the first one looks like figgy pudding.

Jala Pfaff said...

Great series, Sam. Understated but interesting.
Is Figmont near Longmont, do you think?

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

What a great series! I favor the top one, too. That shadow is both warm and delicious.

SamArtDog said...

Jala--
We used to call Longmont, Frogmont. Not much of a leap to Figmont, is it?

Katherine--
I'm sure warm shadows will be welcome in January. We're still seeking (in vain) cool ones here.

Melinda said...

Love this series! I'm so glad you included all of your "figments." Okay, almost all of them...

They're all good. Wow. You've been busy and that is really the best part. :-)

What's next? Perhaps a series of work based on solipsism?

SamArtDog said...

Like a series of belly button portraits?

Randall said...

Those are really beautiful!

cohen labelle said...

Whether theyre real or imagined, SamArtDog, your figments are lovely! . I am also enjoying your play on words. Freud, I am sure would be pleased!

Karen said...

I love Figmont Ridge! Funny I never would have questioned that it 'actually' exists...well it does exist...
wonderful variations.

SamArtDog said...

RT, Marcia, and Karen--
Thanks for commenting so I know I'm not just spitting into the wind! I faithfully follow your blogs, too.