Something completely different

 Although I have never aspired to be a painter of abstracts (nor do I think I have the gift to be), I have enjoyed going a little crazy with splashes and drips and swipes of colors to act as background to some of my portraits, as in these:

So when I saw my friend Dindy (also a portraitist) making an eight-pack of pretty cool abstract paintings, I asked her what's up? and she turned me on to a free one-week "taster" class called Find Your Joy, which is all about allowing yourself to make spontaneous marks and shapes on the paper as you are moved to. Honestly, I'm not usually "moved" to do that, so it's a challenge for me, but I decided to take advantage of the free promo class and see what's what.

The first exercise was to section off a piece of paper into two, four, six, or eight segments (depending on the size of your paper) with artist tape, and then paint the entire paper as if it's one piece. Then, once you're done and it's dry, you peel off the tape and end up with separate small pieces, some of which may be something you like. But the idea is not to TRY to make a pretty painting, it's to allow impulse to reign, make marks that feel good to your hand, brush, palette knife, pencil, or whatever tool you're using, and see what emerges.

The first time I tried it, I was completely at a loss, and it shows. There is not much variety of mark-making, and it's honestly a little bland. I used a bit of collage, a Posca pen, and some watercolor, and wasn't terribly imaginative. I do like the color palette.

It also definitely didn't look like one painting.

So, this morning I looked over what some others had done, checked back in with the teacher's example as well as some of her remarks, and tried again, with different colors and this time really focusing on spontaneous enjoyment of the marks. I had a lot more fun this time, worked with more surety, and used more tools, from a pencil and charcoal to my new rigger brush and a palette knife. Again I had a hard time seeing it as a unified whole instead of four separate paintings, and that shows; but it was a lot more fun and, I think, more successful as well. 

Sorry for the poor quality pics, they are too big to scan (12x16).

There is a new assignment set for today that will be a bit time-consuming, so I may not share it until tomorrow, but I think this paint play is exciting and will lead to some unexpected ideas.

If anyone is interested to play catch-up, HERE is where you can get started. And thanks, Dindy, for turning me on to this!