New! “Absolute : Opinion” Painting

By Daric Gill

Sketching usually comes first for me. Hours are spent drawing out different ideas and different scenarios regarding how the next pieces should look. Then I select the appropriate piece of wood from my library to use as the canvas if you will. I enjoy this process and am generally pretty good at getting out my ideas this way. Occasionally, a piece of wood will come across my table saw and I’ll know that it’s the starting point instead. This time, the wood panel came first.

After a few days of ideation and not coming up with anything, I realized that I was drawing out plenty of stellar future paintings… but I couldn’t quite figure out this piece. And you know what, that’s not a bad thing. Read on to learn why.

What’s your opinion? What do you get from this piece?

*Process Image Gallery Following The Article*

Made from a selection of reclaimed antique birdseye maple, the grain pattern is obviously a really important player in this piece. The figuring in the wood has a great amount of weight that factors into how this piece could be composed. After working for days to figure out what should be the subject matter, I gave up sketching and just stared out into the empty space of my mind and composed internally until I found the right concepts.

Originally, I had planned to paint a set of bound railroad spikes, but the space just didn’t accommodate. The composition was cramped and it just felt forced. Eventually I had decided to re-conceptualize the meaning of this piece and therefore redesign the subjects I’d paint. After forcing the original concept idea for what seemed like weeks, I felt a great release after finally admitting that it just wasn’t the right time or selection of wood to make that idea. This is a journey that is always hard, but ultimately feels great once the new (and frankly better) solution for a specific situation is created.

I suppose that’s also a good lesson to keep in mind for the rest of life.

This wood was reclaimed from an antique dresser, a generous donation by Griffen Hollow Studio. Check them out. Another brother in the wonderful world of up cycling.

Check out the beautiful blind dovetails and incredible metal-stamped assembly instructions. (small numbers are my serial numbers).

Sticky Tack holds the bob in place while I paint it… sort of.

After toning the background

“Absolute: Opinion”, oil on reclaimed birds eye maple. 6.3.14