One of my biggest obstacles in painting is figuring out what I want to paint! The more I agonize over what my subject matter should be, the less likely I am to paint anything at all. It seems the more planned out I am, the more chance of my artwork being unsatisfactory to me. In almost every instance, my best work comes when I remain UNFOCUSED and spontaneous.
This morning I sat on the floor with books, magazines and pictures of artwork I admire, trying (with no luck) to come up with an idea. Every Wednesday I meet with another friend who paints. She is an amazingly talented fine artist who can draw and paint just about anything. She plans her work, does preliminary sketches etc...and she always produces something amazing! (Huge Sigh...) I simply can't do that!
So I finally accepted my "planning" limitations, threw some paint and three canvases, a few brushes and a bag full of paper scraps for collage into a bag and went on my merry way...with no plan....telling myself to remain focused on being unfocused (Ha! makes sense doesn't it!).
I promised myself to not be critical and to just start slinging paint....and here is where I am at after an afternoon of painting. It's by no means complete, and probably will look nothing like this when I'm finished...but I like where it's headed! This "style" is nothing like what I usually paint and I would have never went this direction if I had a plan! But so far it's working, and I have to remember to stay true to me. Having no preconceived notions about what the outcome of a painting will look like, allows me to think outside the box (well at least the box MY mind lives in)!
I know--it's scary just to start with no plan--something I really need to work on above anyting else--just paint or whatever and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the texture and layers of this.