I worked on my next painting this afternoon. I’ve been lacking in creativity because of a few stressful / irritating factors in my environment.My drive tends to come from powerful feelings manifesting in just the right contexts. Lately I’ve been sick of staying at the youth shelter. For the most part, I don’t enjoy the presence of the teens around me.
Still, I put on some music from my phone and ordered something to come out.
I thought of having a grey, yellow and sky-blue background, as a landscape for a series of black stairs. I think I thought of the black stairs at two different times: for the idea of the never ending escalation process to my goals (like steps on a ladder), and again when I played Radiohead’s “15 steps”. I also thought of adding a splash of bright warmth. Lately I noticed that allot of good HD art have cold colors with a splash of warmth. It creates the illusion of a concentrated warmth in a contrasting cold environment, I figure. (
So I poured some colors on the canvas and then poured water on the canvas. This is something I did with a painting I did back in Moncton New-Brunswick:
I remember now that I had done that painting differently. Either way, I splashed water on the acrylic paint I poured onto the canvas and kept repeating those two steps over the surface of the canvas till it wasn’t quite a series of melts and layers, but a mix of that and a big grey blotch. Since the texture of the canvas was so apparent, and since the color mixes could not be properly channeled with gravity, I proceeded to some glitter I found in the shelter. (They got a big box of crafting/scrap-booking art supplies)
At that point it was covered in glitter but the clouds weren’t properly spread. I shook it around a bit and then I separated the canvas glitter in half. My paint brush took half the gold off and I mixed the remaining acrylic as much as I could, so that it would look like water. Then I added some orange at the “water line”, in the shape of a mixed heart beat. This is when I was thinking I could have it be divided like a split rock – I don’t indulge in that idea enough.
I’ve been having the idea of having rings or stripes like a split quartz, but having patterns within each section, like a thin Easter egg layer. I would want it to be as colorful and as complex as some of the many beautiful cloths in books illustrating traditional & modern cloths alike from other countries.
I’m going to keep adding to it. I’d also like to add orange trees if it isn’t overdoing it. I need a way to show some solid 2D eye-candy.
The other painting I was working on is currently in this state:
an Entire Person 
I love your very detailed pieces, but I’m crazy about the ovalish piece–the first one posted. Your hands are works of art as well.
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Thank you! (Just so you know, I just found out I had a bunch of comments pending approval, didn’t realize I haven’t set them to automatic approval yet — & I’m replying to everything now.)
What I like about the oval painting is that it started out completely clumsily & was completely unplanned from beginning to end, but ended up something I am proud of & identify to. (Though it isn’t at all finished) Really. I know that all my art is improvised, but this one was born out of blind attempt, messy water spills, & discouragement. It drove me slightly sick that day. This frustrating beginning seems to tend to be a crucial step in creating paintings for me, I realize that now. The main concept of my art seems to be the rule of never allowing mistakes to be mistakes, but rather, opportunities, & to use patience, motivation and passion steer them toward something mystical and intimate.
I had a headache when I glanced down at the first mixture of paints on the oval piece. It looked like those god awful 25 cent sour gum candies you see in some of those cheap little candy vending machines. (The kind that all children rather not touch ever, because there is always a wide selection of better candy available to them for their quarter!) In other words, the colours were so awfully mixed, they grey-ed up and it started looking like… Puke. Adding glitter helped. Then I scraped off half of that glitter, giving way to a potential horizon. Soon after I just stopped. Gave up for the day, because I had given myself a headache from having to believe any of the mess I’d created would amount to something interesting. But as I added to it later on, it did, indeed, end up interesting and I now have even more interesting plans for it.
Now that my “collaboration” (~ co-theme) project with Ann is finished (or to say the least, now that there are no more time restrictions on my hands) I will be able to work on this oval painting again! It will also be aquatic in theme, as all my paintings seem to be. It isn’t just about where I am, here by the sea. Liquid movements are a definite part of my style. I love the way it binds things into one or many directions, and so smoothly at that.
Your remarks are appreciated, thank you kindly
(hope my extensive responses aren’t too Strange, I’ve always been one to invest as much of myself personally as I can in most online communications)
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The only way I ever work is intuitively–in my art or writing. That fun of discovery is what fuels both. I am also a great believer in the fortunate mistake. Some of my favorite pieces came about trying to cover up what seemed like a mistake. I think we share views on the artistic process. Just do what you do. Looks like it is leading you in an interesting direction.
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