#166 – FINDING BALANCE

Boy am I beat.

Yesterday was a long day.  I drove a lot.  I cried a lot.

Today will be crazy in a different way.  We will be celebrating my baby boy’s 7th birthday.

Anticipating a little chaos, I woke up nice and early this morning to enjoy the silence and get a chance to paint.

Post #164 was me gushing over this new product I found, Splash ink.  I’m still gushing.  I absolutely love its fluidness, clarity & ease.  The color is so crisp and clean.  I just love it and decided to try it again.

For this piece, I cut out a whole bunch of circles from recycled cardboard boxes.  I placed them on the paper and moved them around until I achieved a visual balance.

I then painted the background color.  I wanted something tranquil and I knew I needed to put it down before I added other color, thus assuring they all flowed.

The rest was pure play.  Like Kandinsky, enjoying the response I got from bouncing one color off another.  Compliments, patterns, I spun the painting around and around adding color to all areas, one by one, until I found balance.

I’m proud of myself for leaving some white space.  This is hard for me. For the first time, I had gotten to a place where the painting did not seem to need anything else.  So I stopped.  Again, big deal for me,  I am more apt to keep going and paint it to death!

I think paying attention to the background first was key.   It made me think differently.

I always add every color under the sun to my paintings and then freeze because I can’t figure out what’s left for the background.

I will keep this in mind for my still lives and other work. It could make a difference.

What’s funny, is I couldn’t decide which direction I liked best for this painting.

vertical

or horizontal.

I guess that’s what’s great about it, I can enjoy both.

Have a great day everybody.

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