Lost Love

For Valentine's Day I painted my valentine a painting.

He was entirely delighted with it, took it to work, propped it on the fireplace mantel in his office, showed it off to many a colleague.

A week or two later I had cause to stop by his office with him on a weekend so he could pick up some papers he needed.

Huh.

No Valentine painting in sight.

I inquired.

He turned reflexively towards the mantel and then stopped in his tracks.

Huh.

No Valentine painting in sight.

Did someone appropriate it when no one else was around?

Did it land in the wastebasket regrettably situated where it could easily have been an unintended receptacle for art when an oversized item on the mantel got bumped a week earlier, taking all manner of items crashing downward with it?

Don't know.

May never know.

I've painted up a new Valentine to give my valentine on his birthday today.

My good sense says to reuse its original somewhat sentimental title, 'cause my guy is a somewhat sentimental guy, but each time I picture that Valentine in the wastebasket, the mischief-maker in me hears an Everly Brother's song of yore.

I finished this painting during our third nor'easter in two weeks—
figured it deserved an outdoor photo shoot in snow!

Don't Want Your Lo-o-ove, Anymore!
6x6"; acrylic, collage, India ink, and pastel on gessobord
abstract
2018
[gift]

Trying My Darnedest

I'm working on a little something new today, once again painting over an old painting both for the fun of it and as part of my #paintoutwinter project. I'm trying my darnedest to get spring to arrive sooner rather than later. Winter has been pushing back big time in my neck of the woods, but I maintain that spring will nonetheless arrive earlier than it would have otherwise.

Grabbed a 6x6" painting from 2015,

Morning on the Marram
2015

wrote some thoughts on it,

old painting with overlay of writing

painted a grid format, traced some heart shapes,

layered work in progress

stopped for today.

A Little History

A little history behind An Invitation You Are Not Permitted to Decline:

The 'prompt' was this year's fireside chat with Wendy.

I wanted to capture in one painting both the feeling of the literal warmth-and-glow of a fire and the figurative warmth-and-glow of deep easy friendship.

Big challenge.

Way fun, though!

took an old painting I never liked
and squeezed dollops of fresh paint on it

moved the paint around—
first layer of coverup

added paint

penciled in geometric lines

committed to the geometric lines
with my unpredictable ink applicator

created an acrylic skin
on scribbles of latex paint

began building a collage sheet
on a discarded book jacket

completed the collage sheet

started affixing collage

added snippets of acrylic skin 

did some micro-tweaking (thank you for input, Sylvia!), and … ta da!
come join us fireside for a chat!
---
An Invitation You Are Not Permitted to Decline
6x6"; acrylic, latex, India ink, pastel, and collage on canvas board
abstract
2018

Wow

I did it—I captured what I wanted to!

I couldn't put words to the feeling and didn't have a specific image in mind, but now: feeling and image, manifested in paint.

When I set out over a week ago with an itch to scratch, I could not have imagined this particular painting would be the outcome.

But … if *I* didn't imagine it, then who did?

I knew at each step what to reject, what to keep. I knew precisely when to stop.

Wow.

An Invitation You Are Not Permitted to Decline
6x6"; acrylic, latex, India ink, pastel, and collage on canvas board
abstract
2018
[gift]

Breakthrough

oh!

Finding my voice …

starting to collage on top of paint layers

Constraints

My constraints today: (1) only a few minutes to play in my studio and (2) feeling stumped.

Tension arises from the combination of my having a pre- but barely-conceived idea in mind, not knowing how I might reach toward that idea, and resisting my intuition's call to let go of any specific outcome to instead respond to the canvas as it evolves.

The tension is just that: tension. Something pulled tight. Neither 'good' nor 'bad,' just something of which I am aware.

So.

I draw some lines with pencil and ruler.

I yield to the unpredictability of tracing those lines with a temperamental ink applicator.

Now I need to turn my attention elsewhere, so I prop this little 36 square inches of canvas on my desk, where it will catch my eye off and on until I get back to my studio tomorrow. Wonder what will percolate in the interim.

pencil lines
work in progress

India ink on top of pencil lines
work in progress

Who's in Charge Here?

I have an idea I want to capture in paint, a feeling actually, the feeling of a particular afternoon from a few weeks ago. Not sure how having a vague idea and a conscious desire to express a feeling will play out.

I select a 6x6" substrate (canvas board this time) that I painted in 2014 and never liked. Dab some colors on the surface straight from paint tubes.

2014 painting done at Prince Edward Island

Move the paint around with a scruffy hardware-store brush, a foam brush, and my finger. Scratch the surface with a metal skewer.

first layer of coverup

Keep adding and moving paint around, do a bit of stenciling with a piece of mesh.

additional layers

This isn't how I planned to start this experiment at all, but my thinking brain gets mostly usurped by my intuition and body who tag-team and take over.

Postscript to Invitation

p.s.

I forgot yesterday to include a photo of the piece over which I painted to create It's Hard to Pinpoint an Exact Moment. 

In September of 2015 I completed an exercise that was posted as a challenge at dailypaintworks.com in which contributors were invited to paint an odd-shaped shadow. One of my responses to the challenge was to paint the shadows cast onto our driveway by giant dahlias that were in bloom in Dave's garden. I captured the dark gray shadows on the lighter gray driveway and included a few bright red petals that had fallen.

Driveway Dahlias
2015

It's Hard to Pinpoint an Exact Moment
2018

Invitation

Which universe to enter?

And, once there, will I be able to retrace my steps? Will I be able to return to the drawing board, so to speak, and explore another? 

Does it matter?

It's Hard to Pinpoint an Exact Moment
6x6", acrylic, collage, ink, and oil pastel on gessobord
abstract
2018

enlarged detail / one universe

Another 'Quilt'

What I was not doing while I started another patchwork 'quilt' grid composition painting:

• wrapping birthday gifts for Caroline and Emmy,
• figuring out what I'll pack to wear in Virginia,
• folding the dark load of clean laundry,
• responding to business email correspondence,
• making a deposit at the bank,
• emptying overflowing wastebaskets …

grid composition #2
6x6" gessobord
work in progress 

Wholehearted

Pink postcard series, huge new painting, free canvas #2, and free canvas #3 be damned! Gotta paint hearts on Valentine's Day, which is just exactly what I did!

Lucky me: Instagram artist friend Kathy @digikat2 introduced me to artist Amanda @amanda_evanston who posted a video about painting hearts, with an open invitation to 'copy' her process. So 'copy' I did!

Every aspect of this painting experience put me in a happy place, including the fact that Kathy and I have decided to #PaintOutWinter by painting over one old painting at a time with the goal of shortening winter at the rate of one day per painting.

shadow painting exercise from 2015,
charcoal pencil grid added

painting the grid

adding collage

inking in heart outlines,
adding oil pastel

Unafraid and Able to Experience Small Joys
6x6"; acrylic, India ink, collage, and oil pastel on canvas board
abstract
2018
[gifted]