It's easy for me to buy art supplies, but getting down to painting is fraught with obstacles; much more fun to shop for cool colors, nifty gadgets, and pretty brushes while fantasizing nebulous and gorgeous outcomes for their use, than it is to set aside the time, space and energy for work.
So I am going to discipline myself: NO MORE shopping sprees at art stores — NOT UNTIL you have used up all the expensive creamy acrylic and cotton rag paper already stashed in the trailer. When the shelf is empty, you can make lists and fill bags with new art supply treasure, you can even have some fancy erasers and glitter stripe pens and maybe a few "organizers."
I employed a similar strategy last July; I had changed my paintbox to a more luxurious brand of acrylic, but had kept a small bag of leftover Liquitex in non-standard-palette colors. I couldn't get going on new work, so I set myself to use up the icky old Liquitex on the back side of some dud paintings, and just scratch and fingerpaint messes. I got two kick-ass owl paintings, and some tree trunk starters I didn't like as much, but the self-psyche-out worked. I hope this one does. Here's my first splatter, out of vintage water colours and ancient gouache.
Sometimes it is easier to work with less precious materials.
ReplyDeleteI well remember the brain-hand freeze that I experienced back in my Calligraphy days when facing a precious sheet of hand-made paper with hand-ground Chinese ink.
The new work looks great. Paint on!
the painting is an aspiring, too
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