Black Gesso for a night vision

In this class we’ve been studying creativity – what it is, why we are driven to it, and how we can best follow our creative instincts and the craftsmanship that leads to artistic expression, rather than just  producing creative works that may be passionate, but that lack technique or expertise.

With that said, this painting is a first-time divergence for me! I am tackling a canvas that measures about 4’ X 5’ and which I will fill with imagery that is more mine than anything I’ve ever painted before. My history in oil painting isn’t very extensive. I’ve taken perhaps a total of about 160 hours of classes and I have only gotten one painting near completion on my own. It was finished in class, but with very little input from my instructor. This painting will be completed on my own (scary) and will reflect only what I want to put into it for my own reasons, not to please someone else, or to make a painting that someone else will like.  It may not be to anyone else’s liking, but I’m hoping that it speaks to me and desires.

In the beginning there was only darkness . . .

A painting is a moment of creativity captured in oil and pigment.  This painting is going to be a night painting, so my first job was to cover the canvas with black gesso.

My vision is not clear yet, but here is what I know about it so far:

 It will be a night scene, of somewhere with forest and a lake, possibly a frozen lake, I haven’t yet decided. The forest will be all in darkness as silhouette, however, when you look in that area of the painting there will be a very dark painting of a tangle of forest branches and perhaps paths. The perspective will be close for this, while the forest outline will all be in the distance.  I may add details or not, I don’t know yet.

Above the trees will be the night sky. I have gone back and forth about whether or not to start with a full moon. At this moment, I think not, but I may put it in.  The sky will have a sweeping path of the aurora borealis glowing and trailing downward. I may add small patterns and images into the light trails afterward.

In the background sky I am hoping to be able to incorporate some Celtic imagery. I have done something similar to this in a previously made print series which I created in a printmaking class.  I printed several of the editions on watercolor paper and intend to paint the unprinted areas.   The prints reflect an assignment in which we were supposed to embody the idea of change, of transition. I chose to work with the old Celtic traditions and the rise of the patriarchal societies. In the print, the decline of the feminine is represented in the full l moon which has been captured in the horns of Herne the Hunger. In the sky the feminine spirals fall and fade, while a band of Celtic dogs – an association with man, with war, and with death (as from later beliefs that Herne led the wild hunt with the hell hounds and gathered up errant souls).

• Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
• Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
• Walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns;
• And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
• And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
• In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
• You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
• The superstitious idle-headed eld
• Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
• This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.
• — William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 4, Scene 4

"When the winter winds blow and the Yule fires are lit, it is best to stay indoors, safely shut away from the dark paths and the wild heaths. Those who wander out by themselves during the Yule-nights may hear a sudden rustling through the tops of the trees - a rustling that might be the wind, though the rest of the wood is still.

"But then the barking of dogs fills the air, and the host of wild souls sweeps down, fire flashing from the eyes of the black hounds and the hooves of the black horses"
Kveldulf Hagen Gundarsson (Mountain Thunder)

I am going back and forth about the idea of adding an image of Herne, perhaps similar to the one I created for my print – a modified Greenman visage with the stag horns attributed to Herne. He was also known as the keeper of the forest and a Greenman image seems appropriate to him.  So I was thinking of an image of Herne and an Image of the Goddess, as the Celts were great worshippers of the Goddess.

Perhaps it will end up being far less or far more than I expect. The painting will tell me when it is complete, which may be by the end of the timeframe for the class, or may progress far beyond.

Anyway.  I guess it’s time to pick up a brush and get started. Wish me luck!