Tuesday, June 7, 2011

From Above
16x16
mixed media on canvas

Does anyone else do this - talk to their paintings in progress? This painting started out as a bright yellow non-representational painting and turned into a cool colored abstract that's reminiscent of sitting in the window seat of an airplane looking down at the planet from high above the clouds. That's not what I intended to paint. Sometimes a painting just takes on a life of it's own. Maybe we're not really the painters. If we can get into that zone it seems as if the painting happens all on it's own without much input from us. Getting into a zone happens for me when I take the time to listen to the painting. I start by actually asking what the painting needs. Where does it want me to go next? Then listen - like a good friend would do. Maybe that sounds whackadoodle but there's something to it. When I was working on this one I started with torn paper collaged on the canvas and then started adding the yellows and oranges in washes. I stopped. I looked at it for a couple of days. I put it away for a lot longer than that. It was just wrong. Maybe if I had been a better listener I would've figured out sooner that it didn't want to be a bright yellow painting. Instead it wanted to be a cool aerial view landscape with golden undertones. 

1 comment:

Kelli said...

This has always been one of my favorites.