Dear Friends,
God bless you and your loved ones.
Have you ever heard of intuitive painting? There is an excellent book by Flora Bowley called, "Brave Intuitive Painting" that I followed for a whole year in 2013. My goal was to do a painting a day and it was great fun trying to accomplish that, even though I had to slow down for awhile due to other responsibilities.
Intuitive painting is process oriented and the idea is to paint without planning ahead, to allow the splashes and marks to lead the artist into uncharted territory. I ended up painting images that I never would have done if I were relying on my conscious brain to lead me. It expanded my horizons completely.
Now I am on a different path again this year in 2014. I am creating several different series of paintings that I think will appeal to a wider, more popular audience than what I was reaching before. My process is different. I make plans, do research and draw sketches before I start. I work on a number of canvases at a time filling in backgrounds first and then painting my animals in the foreground.
Today I decided to try to do a single painting and to try to finish it in one sitting. It was such a different way of working, I almost forgot how to do it! Before I finished, I was interrupted and needed to give my kids a ride, but I came close to completing it.
During the process I started painting dandelion leaves in great detail from memory and all of a sudden I was a youth again sitting in the grass tying dandelions into a chain for a necklace. It was a wonderful memory.
The detailed imagery had to go because it wasn't working, but I'm glad for the time I spent doing it and the memory it evoked.
If you get a chance to try some intuitive painting, I highly recommend it. The first thing to remember is that whatever you do is right!
Love, Sue
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