Shell Games: 2015

Shell Games

This blog is about the creative process that I engage in while painting. My goal is to clarify my thinking, explore some philosophic questions and get feedback (be gentle!) on my work. I may pose some specific questions from time to time, for example: “Do you think the background would look better in blue or green?” or “I’ve been adding and deleting details for three weeks, is it time to stop?”

The title of the blog, “Shell Games” is the name of a series of large scale oil paintings that I’ve been doing (you guessed it!) of sea shells. I’ve been motivated to explore a range of meanings within meanings, metaphors, and how people view the world and reality or non-reality issues that come up. The paintings are meant to be DEEP, not just cute or pretty, with varying levels of success. You can choose to interpret them as purely decorative, but I’m hoping they have more internal essence than that.

The name “Shell Games” is a double entendre. It comes from old time carnival illusionists and hawkers who would hide a pebble under a shell (or cup, or hat or whatever) and then move the shells around. At the outset, the viewer would lay bets on whether he could follow the action well enough to say where the pebble was when the illusionist was finished. Sometimes, a sly carnie would, through sleight of hand, remove the pebble altogether, thereby cheating the watcher out of any chance of recouping his bets.

In terms of painting, it’s about how you follow the action, what is seen or not seen, what is inside, what is outside, what the distractions are, where you are going or not going. With shells you’ve got that inside, outside and relationship to context that is so interesting. And it has to be playful in some way, too – hence the “game” part of “Shell Games”. It’s not clear if I can get to “edgy”, but edgy would an advancement for me.

Life is a carnival, the Persian poet Rumi would say a Tavern, but the drinking metaphor is too dry for me. I like carnival better. We enter by a gate, there are all kinds of amusements and ways to lose your way or your money, and at some point it is time to go home.

If you would like to see more of my work please visit my website at VictoriaHaskell.com.

Monday, January 5, 2015

The Holidays are behind me and I am re-dedicating myself to painting projects. Whoo-hooo! The above photos are before and after of work I have done. It may be hard to tell exactly. So if you can't tell, I've been punching up the shadows and the cracks between the pebble, adding glazes and trying to give a greater sense of volume and roundness to each pebble. The upper picture is before - you can tell it is greyer and the shadows on some rocks are not as well blended or worked. The feather is greyer also. In the most recent version (bottom photo) you can tell that the feather is white now and the pebbles have more shape to them. It is good to look at this in this small scale because I can see better where the areas are that need more work. For example, the round grey rock on the bottom left beneath the feather looks like a flat disk, which it kind of is, but not quite that much. For the time being I have to let it all dry some - don't like sticky paint!