Making a Splash: What's on my easel

Saturday, January 11, 2014

What's on my easel

December 4, 2013

I began my first acrylic painting (mixed media actually) after getting my acrylics paints, easel and brushes back. Sometimes a good studio purge (provided you have a friend who understands that you might need to get some things back) is very good therapy. It reduces the over-stimulation long enough to let you see more clearly what it is that you can't do without. Acrylic painting on canvas, my whimsical images with layers and layers of brush strokes and collage, was something I did not want to do without. Art journaling and watercolor and sketching from life is great, but it's not enough for me. I was itching to stand in front of a large canvas and let it flow with no concept of what I was going to paint, no realistic drawing from life, just an idea in my head of what I wanted to say with this piece. Then just throwing caution to the wind and beginning. No drawing on the canvas first, just wild abandon. I mean after all with acrylic, if you don't like it you can cover it up later and just keep layering. It's scary at first and you work and work and think - what if I screw all this up and can't recover it and lose all this time and paint and effort...but you keep going.

December 29, 2013

I knew the quote I wanted to use - "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman. I love this quote! ALIVE. I want to be alive and I want my paintings to be alive - alive with color and lines and shapes and words.

I stopped with the above version for a while, but it wasn't alive at all. I was just afraid to move forward. So I was stuck for a while.

But then I decided to pick up with brush again and keep working. I got out the oil sticks and just went wild again - fearless. And then! It came alive!!!