I'm really enjoying these. During the workshop, it had felt very frustrating to create so many panels that ended up in that artistically nebulous place somewhere between just-begun and not-done. Loading them all up into my car, and then lugging them out from the car into my studio, propping them all up anywhere I could find space and then seeing so many ugly-duckling-phase paintings felt discouraging. But now I guess I'm reaping the benefits of all those partially-finished paintings, because three times in the last week or so I've been able to pick up one of these paintings and finish it in an evening.
I think with this style of painting, in particular, it's extremely important to have several around in different stages; when you get really frustrated with one and it just seems to keep getting uglier the more you work on it, you can put it aside knowing that everything you just did to it doesn't have to be removed but rather will serve as underlayers for whatever you next decide to put on top of it, whenever that may be. It's also really helpful that it's possible to work in this medium on a layer that may be wet, semi-wet, or dry. The reason this is so advantageous is that when you do get frustrated with a piece and put it aside, you can do so without needing to have a plan in mind, or timing, as to what you're going to do next with it.
...Which works well with my artistic temperament. I like spontaneity, intuition, and happy accidents when I do art. Which is odd, because in my house and life in general, I like order and calmness and predictability and neatness. But my art studio is a huge, chaotic, creative mess, and I like to work with a minimum of planning. I wonder why my artistic mode is so different from my normal way of being. Is your artistic mode in tune with your "normal" mode, or is it opposite, like mine?
-----
Jazzy waits for his dinner...
.JPG)
%2Bof%2B01-Sugar%2BMaple.jpg)
.jpg)
