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So back to the acrylic, playful work. This image just delighted me as it emerged. Each of these images seem to show me parts of my subconscious, personality, I'm not sure what. I just know that it feels sometimes like I have a tiger by the tail. These paintings seem to be telling me something about myself. Or maybe they are telling the viewer about me. Or both. At any rate, this is fun. The Ray for the Day is "Reach for the Moon".
Though I totally enjoyed painting this oil painting of lovely Langley, I am eager to get back to the acrylics tomorrow and get my hands in them. These two types of paintings I am doing right now tap into totally different parts of my psyche. The oil paintings appeal to my orderly, logical self. The acrylics tap straight into my whimsical part that likes to surprise myself. Both appeal to the sensual me. When I walk to my dear Studio 106 from our Langley condo I walk through the back of Langley into the front of it. This is a scene I see on one of the several routes I take. I always enjoy looking at these buildings. The Ray for the Day is "Backstreets of Langley".
I spent the day in my Kirkland studio and worked with the concepts I learned from Jesse Reno. Trying to make it my own. Beginning to find my personal iconography. Everything in this painting has personal meaning to me......and yet I "found" it in the painting. Well, the basic shapes are found. I added the symbols that mean new growth, home, change to me. Our house is on the market and so I suppose it is not surprising that this house is on wheels. It is hard to know if this piece is finished. I worked on 3 pieces today. I made some changes to Remember, painted out an entire composition that I haven't yet posted and worked on "Move" which changed many times today and may continue to do so. I am loving this way of working and find myself totally engaged and really curious about what will emerge. It was very hard to leave the studio today. I also love to paint pictures of things I see and making them look and feel like what I am looking at. I have one of those on the easel as well. I'll eventually post that one. The Ray for the Day is "Move".
It's another Artfest creation! I think I forgot to mention that these paintings were started by painting with our hands. Jesse had huge pump bottles of acrylic medium body paints. The first few layers of paint are applied with our hands. All the formal elements of art are being employed at all times: thick/thin, dark/light, warm/cool, large/small etc. So once the first smear of paint is on the canvas we need to stay engaged with the piece, always asking ourselves if we like the way it is looking and is there balance and does it feel right. "If you don't like it get rid of it!". We keep working until we feel pleased with what is there. Then next layers are done with brushes, oil pastels, big black pencil or whatever will help us say what we want to say. We look at the hand painted surface and begin to find what is there.....like looking at cloud formations. We save what we like by painting around it. Paint out what we don't like. Always engaged. Always present to the piece. Just the way any art is made. I don't feel this piece is quite finished. I see areas that want to be changed. I will keep working on it. I have two more that need much more work. They will show up here later. Meanwhile, yesterday when I went back to work on a Langley street scene that I had on my easel before Artfest I felt much more fearless, much more certain, much more engaged. I'm still high from Artfest! Hope it lasts a long, long time. The Ray for the Day (fittingly) is "Remember".
Now for something a little different! I just returned from an amazing event called Artfest. It was a 3 day workshop that is held annually at Fort Warden in Port Townsend WA. My artner (new word we coined this weekend) Joanne and I got excited about an outsider painter named Jesse Reno. We discovered he was teaching at Artfest and decided to go if we could get into his class for at least 2 days. We did, so we went. I could say a LOT about this experience, but let me just say that I knew my creative juices needed a little kick in the pants....and had a feeling Jesse Reno might be instrumental. I was not prepared for how powerful this whole experience turned out to be. I feel old parts of me have been re-awakened and new rooms have been opened. We worked hard all day long, were lost in the flow, and everything felt all new and shiny again. I'm not sure how this experience will integrate itself into my current work, but I am sure it will. A Reno quote: "It's just a piece of paper. If you can't take a risk with that what will you do with your life?" I thought I had finished this painting and I almost loved it. People were coming around taking pictures of it and telling me how much they loved it. I told Jesse I almost loved it. He said "paint it out and see what else you can find there that you will love more." and I did it! and what I found I liked better! And people were saying they couldn't believe I did it. It's only a piece of paper, but it took a lot of courage. Something else I heard over the weekend that tickles and describes me: "I didn't come to save the world, I came to decorate it!" I am challenged to discover my own personal iconography that describes my passions. More to come. The Ray for the Day is "Be Free!" SOLD
