Joan Mitchell

I went to Grand Army Plaza library to go work on my play for a couple of hours.  I'm not going to complain.  To be quite honest, I'm a little sick and tired of whinging about the creative process.

Instead, I want to tell you about how I started to skim the shelves in the Art Section.  I pulled out some books on Joan Mitchell.  She's this Abstract Expressionist artist from the early 60's and 70's.  A couple of postings ago, I mentioned that I'm interested in learning more about women artists.  It was pure chance that I found her books but when I opened up them up and took a look at the art plates, her work took me by surprise.

I love abstract art.  I mean I get goosebumps when I come across someone's work that I've never seen before.  And I know looking at art plates are NOT the same as looking at the actual piece in life BUT...
 
She has one named Salut Sally from 1970 oil on canvas.  She has this beautiful hue of dark blue in the upper top of the canvas and then the colors blossom around it.  The brush strokes are thick impasto but her use of white helps lighten the piece.  It adds an effervescence to the middle field.  She uses this dark green and brick red paint but these colors seem to stabilize the overall look of the piece.


Then there is a piece called Mooring from 1971.  A soft pink empty field, a place to rest the eyes, in the upper portion of the canvas. Then the purple lavender and oranges intertwine in the middle field.  I don't usually like that specific color pallet but she managed to make it playful.  I may play with that color scheme just to see where it goes. I think her use of greys and whites helped tamp down the brightness of the overlook of the piece and gave it a moodier feel to it.  It's lovely.


In La Ligne de la Rupture from 1970-1971, she uses a black square and on top of this field a gorgeous yellow hue explodes off.  The black square helps the yellow dance on the canvas.  The rest of the background is done in a neutral soft white pallet.


In all of these pieces she has paint dripping/flowing down the canvas which gives it a raw quality.  It gives them a sense of paint melting off the canvas which is quite stunning.  Seeing her work has given me a bit of license to play with paint again.  I think I've gotten into a certain frame of mind with the work that I've been doing and I've been so RESTLESS that I wonder if it's my inner artist wanting to stretch beyond the routine way I approach the canvas.  Sorry  I'm not sure if that last sentence makes sense...I re-read it and can't make heads or tails of it.  Let's try that one again.  I wonder if my restlessness has more to do with a part of me wanting to TRY SOMETHING NEW.  Hmmm.  I wonder if this will help me with my stink attitude. Hehehe.

Peace~


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