Let the work unfold

Or:

The Most Interesting Result of the month of June

I’m all excited because only 60 more days and I will have finished the year of daily creating. Excuse me if I run around screaming my head of for a sec…. OK, now for the stuff I wanted to write about:

The most interesting result or finding in June was the conflict of ratio and ‘the urge’.  It sounds more serious than it is. I fall into the same trap again and again. I think up a subject, but the ‘urge’ tells me differently. Let me try to explain. It is interesting that I haven’t really allowed to sink in that it’s a lot easier and fulfilling to follow the urge, to follow where it takes me. But I’m a thinker, I can’t help but to think up a theme and think that’s what I should do. I found this quite soon during this month. And then I just let happen what happened. I noticed I felt the urge to paint the squares. Not the masters. There were several reasons for that. For one, for studying the masters I just need more time. I need to look and read and choose a piece to study. I don’t have the time for that every day. So Drawing The Masters turned out to be “not the right thing to do on a daily basis”. Not possible to do it within a limited amount of time, as the daily piece is supposed to be. But the better explanation is: I simply didn’t feel the urge to do the masters as much as I felt the urge to do the squares. The theme of “Drawing from the Masters” was more like a rational choice, but it was not so well thought out…. or should I say: not so “felt through”? Well, I am only human. I accept the mistake for what it is: a mistake. Let’s move on. I will make that mistake again, I know. I hope that in time I will recognize it sooner. 🙂

30 paintings (nrs 21-50), photo of June 30

Ten more findings, experiences

1. I love painting these small paintings. Who would have thought ? I am in love!
2. I have so many more ideas for this series, no need to stop.
3. I loved doing the quick paintings (two at a time, in one or two hours max), but now I feel I need to add little changes to the approach – to not get bored.
4. I feel a need to work in more layers; just painting with my fingers isn’t enough any more. I will bring back the brush again and move between brush and fingers following my fancy.
5. I hear the inner critical voice (inner critic) whispering softly, but all in all s/he has quieted down over the past month to a soft whisper by the end of the month.
6. “I should change my theme or subject or technique”, says a little voice in my head today. But that’s the voice of the inner critic holding me down, I think. And I will not let her.
7. I’ve developed the habit of naming the paintings. While painting usually a word or a sentence comes up. I really find a joy in doing that.
8. The shoulder injury has not helped in my practice of painting large, so I will return to smaller pieces, making monoprints, collages and the like.
   • Monoprints are unique prints made with acrylic paint. I use a gelatin plate for that: spread paints on it, lay a paper on top and press down. The print is unique as the paint is usually used up in one go. For examples see my page on monoprints. Not all prints turn out interesting enough to show as a art piece, but often the resulting painted paper can be used for collage.
9. Working with the gelli plate I’ve started some experiments much like the square paintings. I got to the studio, took out the plate and found I had left the brayers at home… so I decided to try other ways of spreading the paint, finding new ways. The second day I did bring the brayers, so now I have both opportunities. I went back to the three primaries and – to mix in lights and darks – black, dark green (as I am out of dark brown) and titan buff.
10. I’ve started thinking about whether “the square paintings” are one series, and how to call them. In time there probably will be several kinds of paintings within the series. Now I’m thinking of them as the Copper Paintings. Or the Copper Squares. Sometimes I think of them as the alphabet paintings. But that’s only right for some of them, the ones with a (hidden) letter, a letter in the under painting (so far there are A, M, Z, X (and tilted X), Y and Z paintings: and 4’s and 7’s, circles and crosses ).

More on process and daily creating in July

Doing the squares is a real delight, it is so interesting to experience the wonder of cutting back on the amounts of color (from 6 to 8 in the beginning  to less paint, four colors today), to further my experience in mixing colors (ha ha, mixing greys, so satisfying!), experience in getting bored or not getting bored. Every day is different. Every day the urge is different. Sometimes I listen to an inspiring talk (a vid or pod cast) – it affects the painting. Sometimes I think of the book I want to make, and dive into the paint, forget un-forget, dive deeper. I do get bored with making just the two layers. So at about the 50 mark I start to see that the two layer approach will have to give in to a multi-layer approach. I paint one to a finish and one to an ‘in between stages’ state, to be finished later. I have ideas how to do that. Not sure if it’ll work though. Or I paint one and try to push it one step further (if there is time, on the same day). That will be interesting.

So next month I hope to let this process unfold further. Just do what comes to me. Some days I will seek some help from my teachers (lots to look into, look at new lessons or go back to lessons from the past). So if there is a new theme, it’s “Unfold”. Hence the title: “Let the work unfold itself.”

One more thing. I know I have time, so I feel OK if a painting is so-so. I know ‘Tomorrow there’s another day’. It’s still a good motto. But I also feel the end of the year getting nearer. Like a threshold, I will have to move across that threshold and what will be next? Both scary and fun. Oh my, so many thoughts and feelings these days.

Oh and it’s World Watercolor Month (more about that on another day). So I’d better fit in some watercolors from time to time.

July postings

• I will show more of the square paintings in a few days.
• I will probably not be regular; I may post daily for a while, and then post once or twice a week for a while.

Don’t be surprised if I do something totally different this month. I change my mind sometimes, don’t I? Ha ha. Or I hurt myself and have to adapt. All possible. Well, let’s say it’s all part of the ‘unfolding’…. 🙂