On My Honor
My original and enduring compass points over nine years of painting have been these: to be playful, get messy, make discoveries, and trust my gut. My overarching guiding principle has been and is to trust the unfolding.
I am currently giving heightened/renewed attention to noticing and honoring my own preferences as I paint and giving keen attention to what I notice and like in the art of others.
The paint sketches here comprise just such an honoring. I indulged in taping off a grid; playing with a monochromatic palette of high-flow acrylics applied directly and loosely from their bottle nozzles; working on all six ‘canvases’ at once; using a palette knife and fingers to add blue and white; and making marks and moving paint very quickly and intuitively.
I let the preliminary set-up dry. Next I jumped in with India ink from an eye-dropper, Stabilo pencil scribbles, a bunch of marks with ink using a dip pen, and some paint splatters.
Again, drying time. After that, ‘fussy’ detail work that I enjoy: losing myself in asemic writing, Posca pen play to create a hint of light and shadow, and tiny touches of both print and hand-painted collage.
Finally, a bit of dip-pen linework to provide just enough disruption to keep a loose feeling of free-flow.
each roughly 3.5″ square; on sketchbook paper
abstract landscape
2023
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8 responses to “On My Honor”
I’m admiring these free flowing, loose little scenes…with just the right amount of subtle detail work. I’m especially fond of the skies. Again, they remind me of pages that would be in a children’s book of some little adventure! Well done!
I am a little intimidated by my dip pen…but I know it would help me loosen up and provide some much needed “disruption” in some of my work. Thanks for the inspiration.
MaryAnn, a pleasure to have you enjoy what I so enjoyed creating. I appreciate your feedback re the skies.
The dip pen! I used to be more intimidated than I am now. Its unpredictability is what intimidated me and is precisely what I love about it now. If I can’t loosen myself up, then I put myself in the way of inevitable disruption!!
The six-in-one format has been very inviting and freeing for me. Thanks for your affirmation of “splendid!”
The greyish background comes from the paper in the sketchbook I’ve been using off and on this year. I purchased it 4 or 5 years ago to use as an art journal for exercises suggested in a book (by Nancy Hillis, perhaps?). Anyway, I scribbled notes/thoughts/responses on the first few pages, and then the journal sat untouched and forgotten until sometime this year. Now I’m using it again, and it holds grey paper, so grey paper is what I work on! I appreciate your appealing perspective that the grey background is inviting, that “there’s already something in the background.”
Sheila, YES to celebrating lost and raw!
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