Gazing West

Gazing West acrylic on 6" x 6" board

I admire the daily painters.  They pop out acceptable works of art on a daily basis - seemingly with no trouble.  They are efficient and competent. I'm thinking of painters like Carol Marine in Oregon.  She is a wonderful painter and I love her work.

I notice that many of the daily painters, especially at Carol Marine's Daily Paintworks website, do tiny paintings. 6" x 6" seemed to be a favorite size, so there was a time when I tried to do the same. But I could never pull anything off in a day.  I am too particular.

Take this piece, for example.  This was a bit of an experiment - abstract in acrylic on such a small scale. Unbidden there arose a theme.  It seemed like the west to me, because of the colors, and I saw figures and, yes, a dog.  None were intentionally painted.

I did that fairly quickly, and liked the result.

Then I took a photo.  Somehow in the photo there was more depth and it was warmer in tone.  I liked the photo better.  The painting looked insipid.

So I decided to give the board a glaze of a transparent rose tint in one fell swoop and .. I hated it! Panic.  Ruined! I thought.  I was wearing rose-colored glasses!  I was in a bordello!

I had erased all of the variance in color that had made it interesting.

So then I started bringing those colors back, through some repainting and lifting.  I worked on it over a span of days until finally I abandoned it, thoroughly disgusted.

I believe it was relegated to a drawer.  Then eventually a shelf.  I would walk by it and evaluate. And, you know?  This wasn't the first painting, that I liked.  It was not what I saw in the photo that I liked even better.  But I like it.  I like the result.

I am going to paint larger.  I think if, no matter the size, a painting takes forever, than I may as well paint in a size that the market considers to be valuable. But I know the truth.  There is value in a small painting too, even it takes forever to make.

Welcome 2015!

18, 32 41  ink and watercolor, 6" x 4"

I'm posting this tiny artwork that I made last night because it makes me feel happy, and happiness is something that has been lacking for much of the past year.  I've made other art and I've even scanned some, but I have not been able to bring myself to post of late.  I am unsure why.

Maybe this year I will correct that.  Perhaps I will post more in 2015.  Or maybe I will start a new blog instead - a fresh start for a new person - because I am changed.  Or I feel changed.  I am a darker self, less light than I used to be.  Or maybe I won't blog at all.

I really don't know.

And that is what the coming of 2015 feels like to me.  The direction of the year is uncertain, and that is unsettling, yes, but full of possibility too.  And I like the possibilities.

Best wishes for a happy and fulfilling 2015 - may all that you experience make you flourish and grow in color and in depth - like a painting in a master's hands.