For many years I have worked alternately between (or concurrently but very separately) figurative art and abstract art.
It has been repeatedly suggested to me that I combine these two outputs. I've never seen a way to do it. Even when the way I'm handling the paint has been similar the two modes feel like very different types of visual problem solving.
And to further undermine my incredulity that these two modes could be combined, the very reason I started painting abstractly was so that I could emulate Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn who vacillated between figuration and abstraction, but whose abstraction influenced and was even incorporated into the way they used color, form, etc in their figurative work.
Until recently (see chromoluminarist influence in Eyes Closed, Laughing) not even the colors I love in abstraction influenced my figurative work, so there has definitely been no influence or incorporation of forms or brushwork from abstraction.
Until now.
I have finally found a way to meld my abstract and figurative modes. Details in the next post.