John Scane Essay
#6 Matthew Thomas (Visiting Painting)
#7 John Scane (Response Painting)
When I unpacked the crate my first reaction was, what the hell do I make of this? I took my canvas out and closed the crate leaving the source painting inside for the next three days. During this time I primed my canvas with several coats of gesso and modeling paste trying to get rid of some of the tooth and also to start thinking about the project.
When the canvas was to my liking I cleared a spot on the wall and unpacked the painting, it was as I remembered it. At first it appeared to be just a colorful abstraction mostly in blue with a strong yellow squiggle in the center and some various solid circles of basic colors. It seemed dry and flat. After starring at the work for a while it started to reveal itself and offer me clues to decipher. I saw that the yellow squiggle was actually a line drawing of what looked like a rose and the colored spheres had orbits they resided in as well as an order.
As I lived with the painting over the next few days I felt like I had a mystery to solve to unlock its meaning. I kept coming back to the idea of birth and a flowering of life, the birth of the solar system or even the universe. The concentric rings with their color-coded spheres reminded me of a solar system and planets with orbits. The flower was encompassing and in full bloom with light. When I couldn’t escape this interpretation and resigned myself that I would never fully know what the painting meant I was able to start applying paint to my canvas. I started by making marks that were abstract just trying to find a rhythm. I painted with a brush and drew with an oil stick. I put layers of paint on and washed layers of paint off with thinner and turpentine. I worked this way for a few days applying layers and making marks until I found a direction that seemed in line with my
interpretation of the source painting. It was an uncomfortable place to be knowing that I had a limited time and already I was half way through it. The painting was on it’s way but wasn’t entirely resolved and I wasn’t sure if it would be but at a certain point I applied the light and almost instantly the painting made sense, it had become what I was thinking and was basically finished except for some touch up work and a final glaze. In the end I had to let it find itself. In the end light prevailed.