I received a very lovely email from someone who recently bought one of my paintings from J.Pepin Gallery. She asked me about my most recent work pictured above because it is so different from my normal style which I've become known for.
Every now and then I experience feeling stuck in my creative process. Of course, I begin to think the worst and panic sets in, thinking I'm most certainly all washed up as an artist . . . after all these years and the hard work to get to where I am today (insert dramatic and sad violin music here). It's times such as these when I get out my acrylic paints and gesso and a large canvas. I don't think, I just paint. I paint on (with brushes, palette knives, sponges, my hands . . pretty much anything, even flinging or throwing the paint) and I scrape or wipe paint off. Paint on. Paint off. It's meditative really. Sometimes I don't like where a painting is going and I gesso over it completely and begin the process again. Somehow, as if my magic, something appears on the canvas that I'm happy with and the painting lets me know it is finished. Also, as if by magic, someone almost always buys the finished painting, and it's as if I painted it just for them alone.
It's these times of painting without thinking and making messes and getting messy with the paint and the process that loosen me up. In the loosening I'm opened up for new inspiration and new works to unfold in my regular style and with my regular medium, gouache on paper.
I highly recommend the process of just letting yourself be completely free with paint and canvas, or paper, or whatever - walls, maybe?
Every now and then I experience feeling stuck in my creative process. Of course, I begin to think the worst and panic sets in, thinking I'm most certainly all washed up as an artist . . . after all these years and the hard work to get to where I am today (insert dramatic and sad violin music here). It's times such as these when I get out my acrylic paints and gesso and a large canvas. I don't think, I just paint. I paint on (with brushes, palette knives, sponges, my hands . . pretty much anything, even flinging or throwing the paint) and I scrape or wipe paint off. Paint on. Paint off. It's meditative really. Sometimes I don't like where a painting is going and I gesso over it completely and begin the process again. Somehow, as if my magic, something appears on the canvas that I'm happy with and the painting lets me know it is finished. Also, as if by magic, someone almost always buys the finished painting, and it's as if I painted it just for them alone.
It's these times of painting without thinking and making messes and getting messy with the paint and the process that loosen me up. In the loosening I'm opened up for new inspiration and new works to unfold in my regular style and with my regular medium, gouache on paper.
I highly recommend the process of just letting yourself be completely free with paint and canvas, or paper, or whatever - walls, maybe?
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