“I have long been curious about the place where images come from, how they’re created and their affect on us. For example, the first time I saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art, it brought me to tears. It is a beautiful painting. If you have seen it, you know it carries a profound energy. So how is it that it still emanates this energy a century later?
It is this curiosity that has me as attentive to the process of painting as to the image itself. But it begins with the image, usually appearing complete and with a title. Prepping the canvas becomes the invitation for the image to be here and I journal the process of the painting on the back of the canvas. It is the act of painting where I find joy. It is a quiet place where the focus is with the instinct that directs my eye, my hand, the colors I choose, the size of the brush I use, how much paint is on it and the pressure I use to apply the paint to the canvas. In these moments, I can lay down the thinnest layer of color that then builds upon the previous layers to give volume to the image.
The surface of the final image needs to be as beautiful and integral to the piece as the very first layer of paint on the canvas. The balance is always between the personal and the non-personal, to give up what I originally saw and be open to the changes the process requires. It is in this meditative space where the image comes into its own being. It is also the place where the voice that says I am not a painter is silent.”
[images © Martha Widmann]
