I'm just going to write every day about what I'm doing in art. Plain and simple. Boring for my husband and family to listen to, so I'm putting it here!
I discovered art about 7 years ago and it has been my obsession since. Never took an art class before that. At this point I have done graphite drawings, pastels, colored pencil, oils, watercolor and now have settled on acrylics. I love the intense color, the boldness and the tactile nature. Each medium has something to offer, and something lacking. I find its hard to be spontaneous in acrylic, well, its hard for me to be spontaneous at all, but thats what I'm working on. Primarily I love that I don't have to put the finished piece under glass. I like the view to be able to touch the work, interact without barriers. Its both a concept thing and a physical thing, but its important to me. At this point I'm struggling with turning off my brain so that I can express my subconscious. Not abstractly though. Up until now I have been stuck in my beginners mode of being as realistic as I can. Making stuff look like stuff. But I'm very frustrated with that. There is no mystery, it doesn't involve the viewer. I want to paint questions, not statements. I have this sensation of what I want to express. I guess its a sensation, not really a thought or an emotion. I want to express whats not visible, but what is alive in a subject that draws me in. Certain subjects just speak to me. It's more than being pretty or unusual or remarkable. I want to explore why certain things just draw me to them. As if I need to learn from them by spending the time painting them. And I want to learn to be more sensitive to those things. Be open at all times to that information coming to me from, well, from somewhere else. I know, kinda kooky. But hey, it's my blog! :)
Anyway, I'm sure I'll add some of my armchair philosophy here, but I'm really trying to focus on the nuts and bolts. So here is the painting I'm working on now:
Flowers, I love them. The colors, the shapes. They just enchant us all don't they? They almost seem like an indulgence to paint. They aren't serious. Old ladies like me paint cutesy flowers. They are almost superficial in their beauty. Is there anything beyond that? They are the essence of sex, really. They are meant to attract pollinators. That's certainly a universal appeal. They also cheer us up, you really can't help but smile when you see them. So, more than saying "flowers are pretty" I want to say "flowers raise our spirits". I struggle with depression, and its a very powerful thing to be able to look at an image and feel better. Yellow is a very healing color for me. I used to have stomachaches as a child and I had a yellow towel I used to lay over my lap when I felt bad. I've learned since that yellow is the color of the third chakra - emotions - located right at the stomach. So this painting is about healing. The yellow color needs to stays vibrant. I don't like the composition. numbers are a big thing for me. My day job is in accounting. I love the honesty of numbers, 1 + 1 always equals 2. Solid, honest, real. I have 5 flowers, 2 buds. I don't like the two on the right, too similar. I need another one there - 2 groups of three, and another bud. To relate to 3's and the 3rd chakra - 3 groups of 3. I like that. I was going to add a bunch more stems and leaves but I don't want this to be about lines. I want it to be about circles and color. So I think I'll lighten and grey the leaves that are there, soften the edges. Now about those blue circles. I think I like the idea, but they are competing with the flowers. I wanted the blue to be cool to bring out the yellow flowers, but duh any blue is going to be cooler than bright yellow! I think I'll try warmer, duller blues. I'm doing this in glazes, trying to maintain the luminosity if I can. Okay, off to paint, I'll upload my progress later!
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