The
first pastel painting I did when we moved to Taiwan was from a photo
taken on our first hike in the local hills. I discovered that working
with soft pastels in a hot, humid environment was very different from
working with them in a dry place. The sticks seemed almost "greasy." I
couldn't seem to control them on the page. Plus, I'd given myself some
pretty tough challenges: the paper I was painting on was a deep red, the
original scene was almost chaotic, I wasn't particularly experienced
painting forest interiors (especially Taiwan's!) and there was this
interesting log in lying on the ground that looked like a snake no
matter how I painted it.
Eventually, I got the image on
the right. It sat like this for months. I wiped it off and tried again
on the same paper. It wasn't much better. Then it sat for several more
months.
Finally, I wiped it off one more time and tried
it again, almost a year after the first attempt. By this time, I'd had
some more success with the pastels, dabbling first in little paintings,
and then larger ones until I could get some control over the new feel of
the medium in this environment. I also drew, and drew, and drew...as
much Taiwanese imagery as I could. That helped.
Here's
the resulting "Version 2" of "Old Denizen." I've corrected the mistaken
interpretation of some of the branches, removed the "snake" log, and
worked mostly on lighting the branches and the ground better. It's
closer to the original photograph. Is it better than the first version? I
suppose that's up for debate, depending on what you like. I find this
version more satisfying. In any case, the composition isn't particularly
compelling, so I don't think I'll post it in the gallery, but I'm glad
for the experience. I learned a lot!
After the encounter with the cosplay folks in Ximending 西門町, we walked across town a bit to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial 中正紀念堂. Ping had learned about a performance of traditional Balinese Kecak Dance 克差舞 that was to be held there. Our route led past another event: the closing party after a parade in support of gay marriage. Once again, we fit right in (if you don't count the guys in black vinyl hot pants, suspenders and homburg hats who stood out in contrast to everyone else there).
