The Invitation
I received a Llewellyn Skye online downloadable workshop as a gift in 2023. Thank you, Sylvia!
That workshop and this resulting painting were such invitations into the gifts of process, a process in this case that turned out to span leisurely months and months, with long pauses en route.
Some of the gifts: the delicious challenge of mixing colors, the feeling of brush and canvas interacting, the being so close to the canvas that I found myself ‘inside’ the emerging evolving living shapes and textures, the sure quiet flow of intuition, the dance of shapes and line, the whisper of tearing tissue-paper collage, the improvisational flashes, the tactile satisfaction of spreading glue with my fingers, the call and response of generative play, the deep immersion, the experiments, the missteps, the tweaks, the joy.
The grounded centeredness.
Even though after all this time I’m posting this painting as a fait accompli, I may yet play with it further! It’s so much fun to be the artist, to hang a ‘finished’ painting on the wall, walk by it one morning, see the wall as easel instead, pick up my brush, and bring balance to a spot calling out for something a little less linear, a little softer perhaps.
Yes. There, like that!
30×30″; acrylic, colored pencil, and collage
abstract floral
2024
=====
12 responses to “The Invitation”
Re blog gremlins: ouch! say it ain’t so! Thank you once again for persisting … but, really, do we have to write our comments once for the gremlins and then a second time for the artist? And, why one time and not the other??
Re your “wowsers!”: thank you! AND I am so tickled that you picked up on “seeing the wall as easel instead”—YAY!
Sheila! wow, I particuarly love that you felt such strong visual side-to-side motion. Also love your notice of the spring greens and your feeling that they ‘bring it all together.’ I enjoyed moving from darks to lights as I painted, took pleasure in mixing up the cools and warms. Thanks for your thoughtful and specific feedback.
what a marvellous (and big) painting this is. I can feel the joy, and the description of the process is palpable! I’m looking forward to the moment I will lose myself in painting again!
Sylvia—I am joyfully receiving your feedback! Thank you!
I was just reflecting yesterday on the fact that Skye in her demo used the background color as a ground for activating the canvas and in the end painted over it with a lighter color, a gray. I couldn’t get myself to let go of that activating color and went on to have fun with the challenge of finding ways to provide enlivening contrast. Many of my leaf shapes were inspired by Skye’s looseness which was SO inviting; many others of my leaf shapes came from painting sheets of deli paper and tearing them to use as collage. Skye’s looseness also sparked many of my spirals—it felt great to tap into intuitive free-spirited playfulness as I saw her do so wonderfully. The layering grew organically out of wanting to build depth but also out of both needing to resolve a bunch of missteps and wanting to create particular effects.
I laughed and nodded my head vigorously at your saying this painting is “distinctly, joyfully” mine. I looked at it yesterday, seeing so plainly how fully it was mine! I’m not consistently able to recognize “my style” but I did see my signature modus operandi here—it was clearly not a Skye knockoff, nor a Sylvia knockoff, nor an anybody else knockoff!
Carol, indeed, a journey into process and exploration that has no boundaries. This one was an especially happy dance of colors, lines, and shapes—you put it into words perfectly!
No comments:
Post a Comment