I started a new 30×36″ gouache painting on 140 lb cold press paper today.
I wanted to try one more time because I felt like yesterday’s painting was a little more planned and calculated then I wanted it to be.
Pattern Hill, yesterdays painting, was mapped out, sketched and deliberated. There isn’t anything wrong with this, in fact, most people would expect that this is what one would strive for. But what I would like to experience is a painting created purely on gut instinct. No over thinking. No angst. Just trusting your gut.
Today I wanted to try again to go the direction of this painting: #313- Ode to Hundertwasser
To many it may look like their third grader’s last art assignment, but it really is not easy to deconstruct the world into lines and wiggles. Really, your entire life from kindergarten on, teachers are trying to show you the “right” way to paint or draw. This usually has a heavy emphasis on rendering exactly what one may see, not on using one’s imagination to create that which does not exist.
I fall into this category. My whole art education seems to have revolved around learning how to draw everything realistic. I like realistic rendering. I do. It can be very rewarding, but I don’t ever feel like I get lost in a realistic painting. My mind doesn’t wander, question or provoke thoughts. I think to myself “Pretty apple or very flabby body or yes that looks just like Madonna or wow a tulip and it still has dew on it.” and this is where my thought on the painting ends. Pretty.
Yet abstracts and impressionism leave room for me to wonder. Why is that there? What’s around the bend? The artist deliberately manipulated that, why?
I love the freedom, the lack of restrictions, no comparisons, no one telling you what is “right”. It is simply your vision. People can like it, dislike it, they can not understand, they can not even care. But there may be a few that gain more insight into your brain, how you think, how you feel, and what naturally flows from your tap.
This year is my first year venturing outside realism. I’m not sure what my publics response is to it, but I sincerely am doing it for me. I enjoy it. When I put paint down without any thoughts, without a script, I feel like I am working purely off intuition. No angst, no comparison, no get it “right”. I’m simply feeling and reacting. In this way, I also feel way more vulnerable. It’s like hanging your soul on a wall for others to see. Not so many volunteers for that job I’d imagine.
So for today’s painting I filled up a palette with paint, picked a spot on a large white canvas and began to paint. From the first spot, I stay incredibly present and simply ask myself “Do you want to go left? right? up? down? Quick! Don’t over think it, choose a color…what FEELS right?” and I simply move from area to area. No pencil sketch, no itinerary, no struggle to implement all the “shoulds” I’d like to add to my work. It’s just the inner me. Which apparently is very bright. I mean LITERALLY!
Here’s another tidbit about today.
I just love carving. Next year I think I’ll have to try wood cuts, but for now, stamps will suffice!
I created a forest stamp to use in my painting today. I carved it out of a pink rubber eraser. It worked perfectly. It gives an area a “wood cut” look to it which I just adore. Here’s a close up of the stamp in action. It’s from the right top section of my painting:
There is so much more to do tomorrow. Day #320 of my challenge and still LOVING it! I have to go to sleep so I can wake up and get busy.
Until then…Nighty Night!
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