New Year, New Ideas

Blind Artist Vision: blog by Stella De Genova

I am sitting in the warm glow of sunlight in my room and it feels like a gift in the midst of the cold and dreary Chicago winter.  I have regained energy after putting away the last remains of the holidays and I’m sort of happy that I won’t be tempted by another Christmas cookie.  Now, I finally have time to think about some new ideas for paintings and what I really want to accomplish in the year ahead.

I am doing some soul searching here because, to be honest, it’s getting  more difficult to look at a reference photo and make out what my eyes are trying to see and how it computes in my brain.  If I am going to continue using colors in a painting, it will be from memory because almost everything looks like black, gray and white to me now.  I could just start sketching again but I love my pastels and pastels are all about layering colors.

To try a new technique, I tried putting down realistic colors (from memory) for an underpainting.  Over that, I used black and white, which is what I see. 

I’m not sure if I like it because it may look too flat to the viewer.

So, on to the next idea. 

In this painting, I used grays for the underpainting and more colors layered over that.  I did use some pure black and white for highlights. 

In my past pastel paintings, I didn’t use pure black or white but since I’m looking through the eyes of a blind artist, I think it will be less of a struggle to paint what is more familiar to my eyes.  In this version of winter trees, I am still layering different colors but finishing the way I would see things. I think I like this better.

Now that I’m getting started, I am thinking of ideas for future paintings as well. 

I keep thinking that doing more abstract work would be good since my vision usually feels to be exactly that.  The problem is that when I try to interpret that on paper, my brain has trouble thinking abstractly.

What I am going to try, though, is doing some minimalist paintings.  I am going to experiment with putting a line or two and let it speak for itself.  And what I am really interested in trying is just putting down a shadow and keep it simple. 

My artwork is a good analogy of life. There will always be challenges. I will work through them and as I do, I will come up with new ways to simplify and ultimately, enjoy the process.

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