Sometimes Things Pop Up Out Of Nowhere

I was fooling around on Facebook today, mostly browsing through pictures for amusement, entertainment, and inspiration. I looked at a picture of a friend of mine and noticed something in the background...one of my old paintings. It was an abstract that I had done in a series in the early Nineties. I had actually forgotten that I had done them. As I stared in amazement at my blast-from-the-past I thought I might search a little further. I went to the album that the picture was from and found another containing that painting and another from my Southeast Missouri State days, one of my cubic shadow paintings (the second one that had popped up to remind me of it's existence). Maybe experiences like this only happen to me and others who can't remember all they have done in the past. If that's true, then it's a shame. It was like running into an old friend.

This Is What Happens

I'm off for three days now. I've been itching to paint since last Thursday, when I started my work week. I've got lot's of paint and more ideas than I could ever paint in a lifetime, and more roll in every day. So, this is what I do when ever this happens and I have no fresh canvases to paint on. I go through my stacks of paintings, looking for those that aren't finished, those that I now think look like crap, sometimes even one that doesn't hit my right that particular day. When I find a painting that doesn't pass muster anymore I pull it out and put it aside. Once I've got a few in the reject pile I take them to my studio and paint over them. I didn't think about it at all when I started doing it, but now sometimes I feel bad about it. I have had people look through my portfolio and comment on a painting that no longer exists. I wonder if other artists do this as often as I feel like I do. Have far back in history does this process go? I guess I don't care all that bad, I've never done a Google search to find the answers to those questions. I do wish I could use a fresh canvas every time, but until my sales pick up I can't afford that. One advantage of this is not having to worry about anyone seeing a painting I'm not proud of. The bottom line is I'm gonna be painting for the next few days. That's all I really want.

I've been working on a painting for over a week now. I usually don't take that much time to complete a painting, so this is very unusual for me. I had an idea of what I wanted, I had a reference photo to get me started, I had a board primed and ready to paint on...it seemed like every thing was good to go. I started by just roughly sketching out the subjects in black, then adding some white to get the contrasts going. For the next few hours I splashed and spattered all sorts of colors on it, which is always something I enjoy. After everything had dried I started in corralling everything and taking it to where I wanted it to go. This is where I started having troubles. I was looking to make it kind of cubist, kind of expressionistic...hard to describe, but I had a picture in my head of exactly how I wanted it. As I worked on it more and more, it looked less and less like I envisioned it. The picture in my head became like last night's dream. I could sort of remember it, but as I tried to focus on it, it slipped away. I haven't given up, but I did take some time away from it this week end, partly to refresh my artistry, but mainly because I worked all weekend. I sit looking at it now, thinking that it is very close to being done, wondering just what it will look like when it's over, and thinking that it may not resemble my original idea at all. Here's a picture of my progress so far link and there are more shots of my journey in the photo album. I just remind myself of my new mantra: it's all about the journey.

Home Alone

My wife and daughter have been on vacation all this week. Unfortunately I couldn't get any time off of work to go to Florida with them,so I'm home all alone. I've tried to keep busy, doing chores I've been putting off. The biggest chore I've done that's been on my list for a long time is photographing my paintings. I just finished cropping most of my photos and I'm going to upload them to my various art sites in various orders. I'd like for the people that follow me on all my sites to be able to see at least some of my work before anyone else. Maybe it will be a piece of artwork that they realize they can't live without.