Clifton Peacock: Visiting Artist 3/3/11

Clifton Peacock, Untitled

I was almost unable to go to this talk because of a science exam but everything ended up working out which was great.  In seeing the small images on the signs for Clifton's talk, I was not sure what to think--whether I'd like his work or not.  Although some of it was not my thing, I was drawn to his later, more narrative work.  One thing that also struck me about his paintings was how sculptural they were.  The forms/figures really had a lot of weight.  I also quite enjoyed his use of color in many of his pieces.  The earlier paintings had a sort of otherworldly quality to them with the neon colors that he used (I'm assuming that wasn't just the projector's distortion--unfortunately I cannot seem to find any of his older work online to picture here.  I think the one above and below are from the last decade).  

During his talk, he really seemed to see painting as a somewhat experimental process, that he would often embrace "mistakes" or things he did not expect to happen.  Also another thing I remember him mentioning was that students have asked him when do you know when you're "done" with a painting.  His response was, "What do you want to get out of it (the painting)?"  I thought this was very insightful because I have often wondered about being "finished" with a work and how different artists decide when something is finished.  I often decide that I am finished with something when I don't feel like working on it anymore, but there are also many times where it just feels right to leave the piece alone and consider myself done.  

I think one of my favorite paintings of Clifton's was the one he did of his dog, where the dog is quite small and in almost the middle of the painting, surrounded by a huge space.  The atmosphere in this work is just gorgeous and I liked his composition of such a tiny figure in such an enveloping space.  Overall, I enjoyed the talk--he seems like a really interesting person with a lot of ideas about art.  My only complaint was that it was a little hard to follow at times because he jumped around so much when talking.  I feel like I should have taken some notes about all that he said so I could remember it better!      

Clifton Peacock, Woman with Boar