Tuesday, December 13, 2011

My last oil painting ever (?)

This may well be the last oil painting I ever do:

Epilogue, oil on panel, 30 x 40, 2011



I'm not giving up painting.  But I am giving up oils, for a while at least.  The reason is that it is entirely possible that my body has been negatively reacting to the solvents and off gassing that comes along with oils. Possibly  this has been part of the health problems I've been battling this year.  Perhaps after years of painting with oils, in studios, at home; hell I even painted in a 6 x 10 foot unfinished pantry room with one door for a while, my body was just like...no more, no mas!

Fortunately there are a lot of other options out there, I'm experimenting with water soluble oils, and delving into the dreaded land of acrylics, damn the purists!  This may well also be an opportunity to break out of old habits and styles.  Not to mention work more on my sculpture and installation ideas.  Hell I might even try gouache! 

So as a last hurrah of sorts, I made the work above.  Definitely in the style of my Place series.  No plans to exhibit it yet, but I wanted to share it with you all.

2 comments:

carrie said...

It's beautiful.

Christen said...

Ryan,
Sorry to hear your art has been making you sick. i went through that too--I had a smoker's cough without smoking! Yuck! It can be a bit of an identity crisis to give up a way of working...here's to a smooth transition. Have you tried Open Acrylics? Btw, congrats on Jentel!