It is March of 2022 and I haven't made time to write a blog this year, so I'll remedy that now.
For the past 20 years or so, I've been painting my version of the human form (made up from my imagination most of the time), and I love this subject matter more than any other (even birds, which I paint a lot of!). Lately, though, I've been shaking things up a bit by working on a new series of abstract, non-representational paintings.
It all began in February when I attended a ZOOM lecture by artist Nancy Hillis in which she encouraged artists to "surprise yourself" every time you begin/create a painting. It was an "ah-hah" moment for me because I'd gotten into a bit of rut with my work--resolving each painting in a similar way. Boredom was looming on the horizon, so her online lecture was just the motivation I needed to change my approach.
I adopted a "what have I got to lose?" attitude and pulled out all the half-baked paintings that were lying around my studio (we're talking double digits here). I realized that however much I stared at these paintings (many of them were started 6 months ago) I had lost interest in finishing them in my usual manner. So I did what Nancy had suggested: I surprised myself! I found my stash of Daler Rowney acrylic inks (in little glass bottles with droppers) and started dripping, spraying, and generally working without a paintbrush in hand to rework these old paintings and transform them into something completely different---abstracts!
I must have done a dozen of these in a day---filled with joy at the many possibilities in store, I squeezed out ink, sprayed with water, and let things run and blend on my paper. I followed Nancy's advice: don't judge or assess the work right away, but rather, let the painting sit and then revisit it later. One by one, I set to work on each painting and by the end of day, I was tired but happy---I had repurposed all of these "dud" paintings and surprised myself in the process.
I used this new approach for a month, and though I have gone back to painting my figurative works, my approach to HOW I paint and resolve each painting has become more free and open-ended.
For the past 20 years or so, I've been painting my version of the human form (made up from my imagination most of the time), and I love this subject matter more than any other (even birds, which I paint a lot of!). Lately, though, I've been shaking things up a bit by working on a new series of abstract, non-representational paintings.
It all began in February when I attended a ZOOM lecture by artist Nancy Hillis in which she encouraged artists to "surprise yourself" every time you begin/create a painting. It was an "ah-hah" moment for me because I'd gotten into a bit of rut with my work--resolving each painting in a similar way. Boredom was looming on the horizon, so her online lecture was just the motivation I needed to change my approach.
I adopted a "what have I got to lose?" attitude and pulled out all the half-baked paintings that were lying around my studio (we're talking double digits here). I realized that however much I stared at these paintings (many of them were started 6 months ago) I had lost interest in finishing them in my usual manner. So I did what Nancy had suggested: I surprised myself! I found my stash of Daler Rowney acrylic inks (in little glass bottles with droppers) and started dripping, spraying, and generally working without a paintbrush in hand to rework these old paintings and transform them into something completely different---abstracts!
I must have done a dozen of these in a day---filled with joy at the many possibilities in store, I squeezed out ink, sprayed with water, and let things run and blend on my paper. I followed Nancy's advice: don't judge or assess the work right away, but rather, let the painting sit and then revisit it later. One by one, I set to work on each painting and by the end of day, I was tired but happy---I had repurposed all of these "dud" paintings and surprised myself in the process.
I used this new approach for a month, and though I have gone back to painting my figurative works, my approach to HOW I paint and resolve each painting has become more free and open-ended.
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