Music To My Hands...

Okay... so if you've been reading my blog lately, you know that I've kind of been a little obsessed about painting faces in my art. I'm trying to figure out my own style and in the process have pushed the boundaries a bit on how to go about actually painting. Why not, right?

I've been doing a lot of odd things lately to try and get out of my comfort zone, and this project was no exception. I took an old painting I wasn't very fond of and just painted right over top of it! That was a first for me. But with each exercise, I'm learning to let go more and more.

Recently, I tried painting an entire piece with just my left hand. So this time I thought I'd paint a girl using just my fingers. Good old fashioned finger painting. I figured (or should I say... fingered) that it would be pretty low pressure with low expectations... like kindergarten! That sounds like fun. It actually gave her face a lot of depth, dimension and texture. Yay!

I dressed her in purple, allowing the background to show through a bit. Not sure why, but I was building up layers slowly (still using my fingers only!) and liked it at this point. I wanted to add something, and this torn music sheet title fit in perfectly with the stripes in the background. Plus she looked a little sad, so I thought the title was perfect. Learning not to question everything to death... I just pasted it down!

The scene needed a little something more and so I added a cardboard house.

Now that the left side was taken care of... the right side looked a little bare. I had these lovely peels of cardboard left over from the house — having torn them off to expose the corrugated texture beneath — and so I decided to turn them into a tree.

Okay... so the left and right were taken care of... but now the top seemed a little empty. So I added a little folk artsy crow. And last minute, I decided to utilize some of the extra music paper and give him a song to sing. Love it when those unintended ideas just pop up based on the materials I'm using. Good times.

When I stepped back and looked at my finger painting as a finished piece... I was in awe over how primitive it looked. It wasn't exactly my intention to make it go in that direction... but all that tap, tap, tapping of my fingertips... and smearing lines of paint with my hands made it so.

I really did feel like a kindergartener and getting my hands all messy with paint... not caring if one color got on another... and just going with the flow... was a spectacular lesson in letting go.

So... there goes my everything.

Going With The Flow...

Recently, I took Flora Bowley's online class... Bloom True. The basis of the course was to take "a groundbreaking and transformational approach to painting (and living) that celebrates intuition, connects body, mind and spirit and allows unique and expressive paintings to emerge naturally and authentically." Much easier said than done!

The first thing we had to do was... let go! Creating layers and layers and layers of color. Alternating warms and cools... not worrying about the end result... just paint strokes and mark-making. Whatever felt good in the moment. It was tough... but I went with it.

Then it was more layers. Layers upon layers. Alternating with the warms and cools again. Still trying to keep the end result out of my brain. Still hard! But I went with it.

Then it was time to add contrast to my canvasses using blacks and whites. Ooooh, I'm liking that.

But now... is it too much? Darn it! So I went back to making layers and layers and layers and layers. And eventually it was time to find some imagery and do some masking. Still with no preconceived images in mind.... these are what my 2 canvasses turned into...

The funniest thing is that I can't even tell you what canvas came from what original because there were so many different layers that I mindlessly created without really paying attention! And the coolest thing was that I learned to let go a little bit more. Just a little!