Pining the act of painting

I am officially pining for paint!

I am missing the smell of it, the texture, the visual stimulation, the ‘play’ and discovery! It has only been days since i worked on the last two canvas’ from Series 4. I didn’t end up with a resolution and due to time restraints for drying, I’ve had to accept they will not be in the show. Interesting process…..stopping!

I’ve completed the Catalogue have decided on what to print along with the Titles, Measurements, Pricing. The more I have had to share in print, my experience of painting and what it means to me, the more I find, less is best! I think it is such a finely tuned, personal experience that is loses something in the translation. It is a definite ‘feeling’, a ’flow’  rather than a thought process for me. There are thoughts that flow in and guide me, like one experiences in a meditation but it is not from where the experience is had. The action of painting and visually recording the moment and the energy is the commitment  that makes it real.

To trust, is to acknowledge the ‘flow’, to recieve it and to act on it. A painting can be lost with a color choice or technique used in a moment. You know when it happens. The only way is forward. The next layer, the next choice, the next mood, the next Message!

That in part is why i have a self imposed boundry regarding ‘lost ‘ work, in which i do not Gesso and start again on a blank canvas. I incorporate the last layer into the current and therefor the future work. The layers all have some of form of frequency to emit. Like an ingredient when cooking. Previous layers are the groundwork, the spices, that add to the flavor of each painting! I have never been able to replicate a painting successfully. This is just one of the reasons why. I didn’t always do that, one day I just decided to keep going past ‘lost’, skip the ‘gesso’ cover and see what came. 

On occassion, in the Studio, I may find a work that has been in a dormant stage of ‘lost’ for months, even years, and in that moment bring it back to life. If it is the right moment, I am fed what to do next. I know I am on the right track, when i feel really ‘alive’. If what I am working on loses that energy, i know it is time to put it down, to rest, to dry, to try again later. I love that journey! On an inner level it is indicative of integrating our past in terms of allowing it to be part of who we are now. Then again allowing it to change as the layers journey in revealing and concealing.

It is a great moment when a painting comes to a resolution. It just ‘is’. You know you should stop. I dont always do that but when I do they then become part of the next stage in the ,journey and at some point they find their way. Some of the paintings are very dense with earlier work, more so, in the earlier Series.

All in all, things are on track and we will be hanging on the 2nd and Opening on the 4th of February.