Spring in the Studio

Today was absolutely GORGEOUS here in northern Connecticut. After weeks of rain and waiting for that perfect sunny, warm day to mark the start of painting in my outdoor studio, it finally arrived and I took full advantage! Rather than tackle the interior of my studio (which is a dreadful mess - sorry, no pictures! ha ha) I focused on the screened in porch and cleaned it top to bottom. With my music playing from the laptop, the sweet breeze blowing through, and busily gathering my supplies, all felt right with the world again...

And of course, having it all cleaned wasn't enough - I had to actually paint! To start off the season right, I began with my favorite color, my besty, Phthalo Blue.


The following are some work in progress shots of the painting I worked on today. I worked over a drip painting that I was only kind of happy with on it's own. If I'm not feeling it 100% - it's getting a makeover! Starting with some blue circles to get the ball rolling...





I just had FUN today - which is, at least for me, what it's all about. No expectations, just pure play. I'm not sure where this painting will go from here, but I feel great about where it's at right now. A little more tweaking and layers, a few more pops of color, and it will be there. Woo hoo! We're back in business baby!

Raw to refined... and thoughts on the subject

TODAY'S GOAL: Keep Painting

Something in me, old habit I suppose, went with this direction this morning, emphasizing thick black lines and filling in shapes with color. Once I began down this road, I had to follow it so I can finish it and just move onto another canvas for other approaches.

Ok so I'm going to state the obvious. This painting was more intriguing at other stages. The thing is, I was trained that the painting process worked from big to small, raw to refined and I took that approach to my abstracts. That's the method and technique I've used for years and years and now I want to be more free and loose so I have to fight these patterns. I've been tapping into it with some paintings I think of right off the bat (most of which coincidentally sold the fastest).


Conversation http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=885502&SGID=1803
The Secret's Out http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=871012&SGID=1803
Flurry http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=785355&SGID=1803
View From Above http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=718755&SGID=1803

They are raw, they are intuitive and expressive, they are organic and let paint be paint. This is what I want to be painting. I'm going to get my husband's help to move this canvas over down the wall to put aside for a new stretch of canvas to carry all of these feelings into. It's a feeling of gotta get to the next and the next until all of a sudden you are right there and everything clicks.

Update - we moved the canvas and fresh white blankness is in it's place. It's calling me...

Oversized Work in Progress

Beginning a biggie - here's what I did...

First strokes of color.

Cover the surface with color.

Experiment with ways to move paint around.

Things get messy, muddied... let dry...



Start to break up the surface again with line.



Getting in there with more contrast and color.


And here's where I call it quits for the night. Who knows where this painting will end up - we'll find out tomorrow...

TODAY'S GOAL(S) - Set up a painting corner in the basement (for the cold months when I can't use the studio and, as you can tell date-wise, this is long overdue for the season) - check!

Start a mega painting - check!

Research web hosting sites - semi check... still undecided and there's lots more to find out. I used to have Yahoo Site Builder and I'm looking for an affordable template drag and drop style hosting site. I've looked into intuit a bit as well as webs.com today. Any suggestions?