Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where today, we are going to talk about kissing.  Edges, that is.  Yes, kissing edges, or to be artistically correct, tangent edges.  And we're using someone else's work to illustrate the bad stuff.  Oh dear.

At a recent art fair, I was across the street from an artist who had some truly lovely to look at paintings.  Figurative, of course.  Very Renoir-esque.

Right out front, was a painting of a woman with a a parasol.  The woman was a masterful push-pull of painting and drawing.  A wonderful rendering.  But that parasol.  Dang.  The very top edge of the parasol was also the exact edge of the canvas.  Awk-ward! 

It's called tangent edge.  Kissing edge.  One of those.  When edges touch exactly.  And we all know not to do it because of that "awk" word already mentioned, right?

So I found it totally unbelievable that someone with the skill this artist obviously had would slip up and do the tangent edge thing.

Of course, it required closer inspection on my part, so I ambled over.  Sadly, it was a giclee   (yes,I've already opinionated on that subject.  Ha!  And likely will again someday.   Soon.  )

I was not brave enough to ask the artist if the original also included that awkward composition, that tangent edge structure.  Maybe next time I see him...

So I suppose I need to round up a conclusion here somewhere.  I think three days of observing that parasol woman impacted the next canvas up on my easel.   It can happen you know.  And should.  If we are doing our job, our out-in-the-world experiences better end up on our in-the-studio-canvasses.

I think I'm on the right track at the right time this time.  Hunh.

The current canvas is awash with structure thought.  The are more charcoal scribbles  ( oh,wait I should call them mark-makings.  Or at least deliberate lines) underneath, on top of, and mixed in with, the paint, on this canvas than I have done in quite a while.  Thinking about composition, applying it to the structure.

Heck, I love breaking the rules just as much as the next person.  But those basic rules of composition - the structure of a painting has to  hang solidly THERE.   Whether by accident or on purpose, AWKWARD, is what happens when we don't.

And here's a peek at the aforementioned canvas, complete with scribble marks, but not completeD.  :)

Later, Cooper

BTW, I took the "progress" photo yesterday.  Today his legs grew :)