For almost 50 years, I have been dabbling in, slinging and
flinging paint.
Over the years, I moved from charcoal to pastel, to
watercolor, to acrylic, to collage, to acrylic with collage, to
adding attachments. I moved from small to large sheets of
watercolor paper, to canvas and cradled board.
Without a formal “art education”, over those years, I have
studied with, and gleaned techniques, and a willingness
to experiment and fail, from many workshop leaders. I
STOLE a bit of something from each of them, and then
painted MY way.
In the beginning, I tried my best to paint Cajun cabins and
flowers that looked like real flowers. I failed miserably.
I love drawing and composition, and I have rolls and rolls
of 22×30″ drawings stacked on my studio shelves.
I found my joy in painting once I let go of the drawings
and the rules and took the leap into the unknown chasm
of conflicting color, shapes, marks, and of not knowing
what the end result would be.
The last few years, the titles of my paintings have been the clue to where my creative wanderings were leading me…
“Searching for Harmony”
“Exploring Red”
“Exploring Yellow”
“Exploring White”
“Finding a Path Through”
“Transcending the Golden Glow”
“Looking for Answers, Within”
“Searching for the Center”
“Pondering the Pond”
“Embrace the Inner Tangle”
“Letting Go of the Sweet Spot”
Searching, exploring, finding, transcending, looking, pondering, embracing, letting go…… as I move from a set goal, before picking up the brush, to a mindset of allowing each layer of paint to lead me to the next layer, I found that I could, physically, breath deeper, slower and more fully plunge into the painting…. making it MINE, making it an extension of ME!
I try my best to listen to that niggling voice. I am determined to know the rules and be willing to break them, to embrace colors that are in conflict, to dive into a beautiful painting with marks and obliterate the beauty to allow “whatever” to emerge, to play, to explore.
