Spontaneous Winter Painting

Since I last posted to this blog, I've created oodles and oodles of drawings and doodles. Unfortunately, making them is more fun than scanning and posting them here, so I have neglected to do so. Sorry. The good news is that of late, I have been playing around w/ making YouTube videos. Hopefully that will bridge the gap when I neglect blogging.

Anyway, today was one of those rare days for me when I just couldn't get started. I had a lot of things I needed to get done and after several hours I realized it wasn't happening. I needed to let go, shake it off and enjoy myself. I thought of a blank canvas, a 24" x 24" square I bought months ago just sitting in my closet. This, I decided, was exactly what I needed. A painting with zero agenda. Forget the dishes, the laundry, figuring out how I am going to make a living in 2016! Who needs that kind of pressure? Today I allowed myself to slack off. And I am documenting it to boot. Below are a few photos of the painting I started and a couple of complimentary videos from my YouTube channel.

To commemorate the occasion, I started with a preemptive video:

Then I began piling a bunch of art supplies and the canvas on my dining table. I randomly applied some masking tape. Good enough!

It's been so cold and gray all day that I wanted something exciting, so I picked the brightest colors I had and added some white and darker tones: Medium Violet, Cadmium Red, Dioxazine Purple, Pyrrole Red, Deep Gold, Zinc White, Turquoise Green, Reflex Rose, Light Ultramarine Blue, Persian Rose and Light Rose. It was a color fest!

This is the background. I am letting it dry and may work on it later this evening or tomorrow. I laid the paint on thick, so it will have to dry a bit before I continue. In the meantime, I made another video:

I will continue to document this process until it is finished. Maybe it will be beautiful or maybe just a big mess. Who knows? In the meantime, I will have to think about dinner and dishes and such. Those are the details. Painting is life. Ciao.

Update 12/30/15

Day Two of the "Spontaneous Winter Painting." I've posted a video and some photographs to document the progress. This is turning out to be a project that may take several days. Fortunately, I have plenty of time to work on this.

So, after letting the painting dry overnight, I began working some of the areas with one of my favorite mediums: Sharpie Marker (shown above and below).

When I felt that the Sharpie work was complete I added some Brilliant Green acrylic paint to the red field. I want areas of this piece to vibrate. (See photos above and below.)

Next, used India ink w/ a bamboo brush on the blue field for drama. (See photos above and below.)

Adding Primary Cyan to blue field. (Detail above, overall effect below.) More drama!

Beginning to fill the negative space w/ dots of Permanent Red Purple acrylic paint.
(See above and below.)

This represents about three more hours of work...and this is really only the beginning.

Update 12/31/15

Today I put in approximately 2 hours of work just placing dots of Permanent Yellow Medium. (See two photos below.) Currently, the piece is drying. Tomorrow I plan on spending more time layering the dotted area.

Update 1/1/2016

Today I enjoyed several more hours of working on this piece while listening to some delightful world music. I started out with some happy Caribbean steel drum music, then I was listening to some really nice Arabian beats. Musically today was all over the map. I even listened to some Viking longboat music. Who knew the Vikings were so happy?

Anyway, I accomplished two more layers of dots. The first were Cobalt Blue. After drying for an hour, I followed with Permanent Green Light. Photos are below. I have no idea when I will be finished. This could go on for days.

Update 1/2/2016

Something about this artwork felt amiss. After contemplating the problem for some time, I realized the purple field just had to go. Several days of grey gloom outdoors was taking a toll and the artwork needed to lighten up.

I struggled with the decision until the very end of the day...literally 11:30p. And it took all of 16 minutes to transform the area with Light Violet and resolve the problem.

Update 1/3/2016

This evening I had a wonderful time working the painting and listening to Beethoven. Almost 2 hours of joy. Black Sharpie markings in the Light Violet field and adding dots of Oxide Black. I feel pretty good about the direction of this piece and surprised myself when the image of a tiny dancer emerged from my subconscious onto the canvas.

Update 1/9/2016

I spent two more days touching up the painting, adding more dots and painting the edges. I took a few photos of it outdoors today (it was quite cold and windy), and feel satisfied with this artwork that I have christened Five Fields and Joy. I hope you have enjoyed following me through this process. What began as a spontaneous painting on a cold, winter day ended up being a project that spanned about ten...and I loved every minute of it. Each painting is different. Some come quickly and easily while others, like this one, take me places I don't expect. It's a process of self-discovery. Thank you for sharing it with me. (My final video and photos are posted below.)