NY (7)

I paint while overlooking a 5-acre pond—"our" pond for a week—on 45 acres of secluded rural land in NY state, land which aside from the tiny rustic cabin we are calling home is otherwise undeveloped. 

The painting start below, a creative inquiry undertaken outdoors on a blustery summerlike afternoon at the cabin, will have been packed up, transported home, and unpacked by the time this post is published. My time away will have been embedded energetically in the paint.

Visual history of final NY-vacation painting start:

vacation painting from four years ago

vacation painting start 2020, heading somewhere new

NY (6)

Feeling little pangs of grief as I paint over these pieces from several years ago.

Feeling curiosity, too; what next with these courageous wayfinders?

Visual history of 6th NY-vacation painting start:

NY (5)

Sometimes a given spontaneous combination of expressive actions feels just right.

Sometimes it just feels wrong. 

Visual history of 5th NY-vacation painting start:

just feels wrong and—
oops—horrible indoor lighting

Just-feels-wrong leads to attend-befriend-surrender … and a photo taken in natural outdoor lighting.

NY (4)

Sometimes drippy mixed green leftover from yesterday, washed over a 2015 painting and left to dry; a few colors squeezed directly onto the substrate and mixed/spread with a palette knife; use of a metal kitchen skewer to scratch through wet paint; scribbles made with a paint marker, also left to dry; application of paint onto a foam roller moved over random sections of the substrate; and highlighting some residual color still peeping out from the original painting, using paint markers again … sometimes that combination of expressive actions feels just right.

Such was the case today.

Visual history of 4th NY-vacation painting start:

NY (3)

Wanted to squeeze paint directly onto canvas and mix there. Done.

Wanted to do some splattering. Done.

Wanted to play with drips. Done.

NY (2)

Limited palette, limited tools and materials, limited responsibilities, a kitchen table, some water, a rag, and a painting exercise done on 6x6" canvasboard in 2015. I felt looser and freer than on day 1.

Visual history of 2nd NY-vacation painting start:

detail