A SNeries

For months now I've followed Simone Nijboer's blog, drawn again and again by what speaks to me as her free-spirited, inner-child-inspired experiments with paint, pencil, and crayon. Earlier in April she started a new series of four paintings, writing, I always like to have 'something reddish,' 'something yellowish,' and 'something blueish.' 

Works for me! I decide to start there, to make a Simone Nijboer-prompted series—what I'm calling a SNeries, borrowing her initials!

What I want to do is experiment with layering—covering up, painting over, scraping back, veiling, obscuring, revealing. Not my natural go-to way to paint, in case you haven't caught on.

I cut four eight-inch squares of canvas paper. They feel huge after working with recent 3.5" squares and 4x5" postcards! I choose a brush. Select 'something reddish.' And paint, trying to keep my hand moving without consulting my head.



I pick up a PaperMate Sharpwriter #2 mechanical pencil. Again, hand before head. My hand really has to scramble to stay in the lead.



I choose a blue, choose a new brush.

Brush before brain: go, go, go!



White paint. Roller without rumination.

Just do it, roll right over the canvas. Now! And now! And now!



Yellow paint. Different brush.

Fun ahead of fuss. Move! Move!



Run out of time—bummer!

The energy is … energizing. The free-for-all, fun. My intuition, enlivened.

More, more, more!