Here is a day by day sequence of my most recent painting, “1:16:40″. The painting took about 14 days to complete. There are some missing photos between “Day 7″ and the “Final Day”.
I found that the extra step of taking the photographs effected my usual process of painting. The apprehension of “overworking” a painting has often guided my approaches. I was more cautious when it came to reworking areas of the painting and you will notice that many parts of this piece do not change from earlier stages. Unlike my past works, I have been using less paint and working with fewer layers. I’m attempting to get back to the uninhibited look of my earliest paintings. Back then, I rarely changed anything after the marks were made (for better or for worse). I suppose it is my greatest ambition to become a cross between John Singer Sargent and Bill de Kooning (a description applied to British painter, Jenny Saville). Well, I have been thinking of painting more pictures of hanging meat and beat up people.
“1:16:40″ was completed with more speed than most of my other paintings. Another idea that I had was to complete the next paintings in this film series in the exact time shown in their titles (how’s that for conceptual?!). My experiences in the last few months have taught me that if one works on a painting for more than a month, it’s probably not going very well (unless of course you’re Ingres).