The black lines: too black, too rectilinear, too ugly—in fact, the whole piece is ugly.
My impulse is to add more black (what???), and some red. So I do.
And I scribble in some more penciled circles.
I am so lost.
I get out my brayer, soften things up a little, take stock.
Again.
SO lost.
But then I send photos to lifelong cherished friend and fellow art adventurer, Sylvia. Even before she responds, I feel emboldened: oil pastels!
OK, better.
Next, some containment.
And now, refrigeration. I'm tucking this painting, and the whole SNeries, away for a few days.
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Postscript:
Oh!
It occurs to me that I led myself to today's reaching out to Sylvia by referring yesterday to a fictitious advisory board in my blog writing—good work, self!
And, thank you, thank you, Sylvia—your suggestions, your encouragement, your insights, and your being in the trenches with me have reinfused me.
8 comments:
Following along.... and then OOOUUUU!!!!! How did you go there? Oil pastels. The softening. The cloud like shapes, and the brighter yellow. I love it at that phase. And then you go on. Of course. So now more eager waiting. :)
How DID I go there?!
I don't know, and part of the fun is that I don't need to—I went, and there I am!
Isn't it amazing to think that underneath what's in the last photo lies what's in the first??
So now more eager waiting for me, too!
Hi Dotty, I checked out your friend Sylvia's work, and I really love it...her bold use of strong color is spectacular.
Your description of this piece of art work reminds me so much of my own thoughts while painting sometimes. Correct me if I'm wrong: it sounds like your brain got in your way! Sometimes we rely on what we think we know or do know, and how it should be, that it clogs free flowing intuitive moving around that canvas. At least for me. I then do what you did...I put it away for a while! On the other hand, when you say "so lost", some of your best work has emerged! So what the heck to I know?!
Here's my take Dotty....loved the flow created with the oil pastels. To me - it was finished right there. Delightful. Charming. Free. Exciting. Didn't need no stinking' containment......... :o}
Laurie, thanks for all your input.
I love Sylvia's work, too, and love that her work always has her essence so clearly embodied and visible in it.
In response to your saying it sounds like my brain got in my way, I say my brain gets in my way a lot!!!
I am so grateful for painting in my life—it's a therapy of sorts, a way to explore. I took it up knowing I wanted to bump into all parts of myself—including that pesky brain!, and it surely offers me chances to do that bumping again and again. Some of what I bump into I might wish I didn't have to, but even so that bumping is the work I want and need to do. Happily, much of what I bump into is joy and all sorts of wonderful stuff I never knew was inside me.
Thanks so much for your feedback.
Gillian, I'm laughing out loud at your observation that my painting didn't need no stinkin' containment! And I'm so grateful for your feedback. And further grateful that your feedback feels like the gift that it is, and not a slap on the wrist. All good. I'm so glad we connected during the January 30-in-30 and that we're now back in touch again.
ahhh, the white is like a big fog rolling in....and when it moves away, what is left behind has changed!
Corinna, thanks for seeing poetry in process, for seeing the natural order of things, for fog's rolling in and fog's rolling out.
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