Nicolás Uribe is posting 30 minute painting demos to youtube! He’s now six weeks into his two year goal to post weekly videos, and you should watch.
Uribe talking about Susan Lichtman:
Simple bold choices made in painting, I think that’s the core of painting. … The foundation of painting is so simple and basic, I find that simplicity almost sensual, really beautiful… … Susan Lichtman is incredible at painting big masses of color right next to each other, even though you are sacrificing a lot, it doesn’t feel like it. Even though I am conscious that I am looking at something that is trying to eliminate a lot of … unnecessary noise that there is in painting, and then just recognizing the two, three, four relationships that really make something work, and then amplifying those, to me that is incredibly attractive.”
Susan Lichtman
Uribe talking about process:
“I always have an amplified notion of what the choices that I make do. I’m very conscious, almost hyper conscious, of the effect the decisions that I make on my palette have on my painting. And I’m always looking at my palette and I’m saying ‘Ok I mixed this’ and as soon as I put it down I look at the painting and I say ‘Ok, what happened to my painting. Did I do something to it? Did I not do something?’ And whenever I make a choice and then I look at my painting and nothing happened, I think ‘Ok what was I trying to do, because clearly I am just painting aimlessly (….)”
“Every single time you go to the palette you have to try to solve something. You are looking to solve a very specific problem, and if you are trying to solve a very specific problem, when you put it down you should be able to gage whether the decision that you took is actually taking you closer to your original intent or did it take you farther or did it do nothing. Those last two are not things that you want when you are painting.”
“I recommend that when you are working, if your mind shuts down, you could try and convince me that what you’re doing is just letting things flow, but honestly I think that is something that comes naturally to very very few people. That’s not the natural way that people paint … I think painting is a hyper consciousness of thought and sensitivity and perception. It’s very romantic to think you’re just reacting to something and letting things happen, but the truth is that for a lot of us, for the rest of us we have to work very very hard to figure out why something is working, why something isn’t working. so if I could suggest to everyone, it would be to work having a goal in mind.”
Recognize what your painting is about
“Painting is about recognizing our own sensitivity and the way we perceive, and then asking ourselves ‘ok I think I get what is moving me.’ (…) When you recognize that that is moving you, then you say ‘ok how can I translate that into paint. How can I say that with painting.’ (… Painting is…) you trying to explain to yourself how you feel about something, and evaluating it.”
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Nicolas Uribe’s demo channel
Nicolás Uribe is posting 30 minute painting demos to youtube! He’s now six weeks into his two year goal to post weekly videos, and you should watch.
Uribe talking about Susan Lichtman:
Simple bold choices made in painting, I think that’s the core of painting. … The foundation of painting is so simple and basic, I find that simplicity almost sensual, really beautiful… … Susan Lichtman is incredible at painting big masses of color right next to each other, even though you are sacrificing a lot, it doesn’t feel like it. Even though I am conscious that I am looking at something that is trying to eliminate a lot of … unnecessary noise that there is in painting, and then just recognizing the two, three, four relationships that really make something work, and then amplifying those, to me that is incredibly attractive.”
Uribe talking about process:
“I always have an amplified notion of what the choices that I make do. I’m very conscious, almost hyper conscious, of the effect the decisions that I make on my palette have on my painting. And I’m always looking at my palette and I’m saying ‘Ok I mixed this’ and as soon as I put it down I look at the painting and I say ‘Ok, what happened to my painting. Did I do something to it? Did I not do something?’ And whenever I make a choice and then I look at my painting and nothing happened, I think ‘Ok what was I trying to do, because clearly I am just painting aimlessly (….)”
“Every single time you go to the palette you have to try to solve something. You are looking to solve a very specific problem, and if you are trying to solve a very specific problem, when you put it down you should be able to gage whether the decision that you took is actually taking you closer to your original intent or did it take you farther or did it do nothing. Those last two are not things that you want when you are painting.”
“I recommend that when you are working, if your mind shuts down, you could try and convince me that what you’re doing is just letting things flow, but honestly I think that is something that comes naturally to very very few people. That’s not the natural way that people paint … I think painting is a hyper consciousness of thought and sensitivity and perception. It’s very romantic to think you’re just reacting to something and letting things happen, but the truth is that for a lot of us, for the rest of us we have to work very very hard to figure out why something is working, why something isn’t working. so if I could suggest to everyone, it would be to work having a goal in mind.”
Recognize what your painting is about
“Painting is about recognizing our own sensitivity and the way we perceive, and then asking ourselves ‘ok I think I get what is moving me.’ (…) When you recognize that that is moving you, then you say ‘ok how can I translate that into paint. How can I say that with painting.’ (… Painting is…) you trying to explain to yourself how you feel about something, and evaluating it.”
– Uribe in Monday Week 1: Portraits In Different Lighting Conditions video
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