Saturday, November 6, 2010

Intuitive Painting


Here's my painting "Expectant Buds" that won the People's Choice award. It was fun and validating for me to win the award and also to have my painting bought by a lady from San Antonio who was very excited about hanging it in her home.
It is a special one for me, because it is one of my "intuitive" or spontaneous paintings. I started out with a fresh piece of watercolor paper and lots of tubes of paint before me. I went by "feel" to orient the paper and select the paints I felt drawn to, without a preconceived idea of what or how I intended to paint. On wet paper, I freely applied paint and water from the brush with my whole arm, and let the colors mingle on the paper, responding at a gut level to the painting as it evolved. Then after it dried, I added contrast and definition, attempting to create interest without impeding the freedom and flow of the underpainting. I enjoy painting this way and in this case enjoyed the results too!