Dennis Hollingsworth

La Primera Vez

This is the first painting done since we arrived here in Tossa. I wanted to upload it super quick so you all can see. (Other and more paintings to come.)

This one is different from teh rest in that there are areas of color pushed on in large patches, different from the overall large screeds of paint that form the base in most of or all of the paintings done earlier. By starting with patches, I am not commited to the entirety of the surface as I was before. This will give me some freedom in terms of scale since I will be able to work in smaller chunks (working the entire surface in alla prima, in the manner in which I like: munchy impasto) limited me to a scale that can be taken on all at once. Larger scales- bigger than my outstretched arms- were unpleasant since I can only bring heights of precision and frission within the medium and smaller scales.

Precision con frission. That's sounds like a good descriptor.

A couple of paintings later, I realised that I could start with lighter and larger areas of paint by laying it on and subsequentloy taking it off. Laying it on and taking it off, the lietmotif of alla prima impasto. By working larger areas, I think I might have another strategy for extending the scale. More on this later of course.