pushing the paint * trying stuff * playing
26' X 40' Multimedia Blitz
LIKE A CHILD
The way a child gets to know things is to try things. Try waving the little hands in the cradle; try crying! What does it do? Later try jumping in a puddle. Or touch the cat. Try a new word out, and see what others say back.
The painting above is mostly watercolor. Yes, there is ink, and pastel, and various aqueous and non aqueous solvents involved, including a coat of clear spray fixative or varnish, I forget, really, what I did use. It was done about fifteen or twenty years ago on the floor of my old studio in Issaquah, and I remember enjoying very much the play of making the colors weave through it-- bringint out motion by coloring the negative spaces, and inking in details as well as spritzing color in certain areas. There is a small amount of unpainted white paper showing. But this painting, though dense in pigment and bright in color is not a dark painting. It has black elements in it, but they are not dead. I used some silvery paint in places...a departure from my usual reserve about "bling". I just dragged this one out of a bunch of rolled art and opened it up for the first time in many years. I really like it. I will frame this one soon and get it up where people can see, and maybe pay some money for the privilege of owning it. I would gladly own it, but my walls are few and paintings are many, and besides, it needs to be enjoyed.
The pretty fish above got forever muted when I made the error of putting shellac on them. The shellac picked up the paint some and also darkened the bowls so that they are quite different now, and not as pretty. I will make more like this and keep the brighness. Same thing going on here as in the painting...play. Child stuff.
People like these. I think part of what an artist does for the general public is to allow them to indulge in pushing ideas further than they might otherwise. Music gives more permissions to dignified people to let go and try things than visual arts...and for some reason people are really much more reserved about "trying on" pushy pieces of art, while they are more freely experimental with music.
But experiment is what makes the difference, I believe, between just a nice object and something that is really engaging. I'm going to run with this idea in my workshops to come-- allowing room for people to see what watercolor can do other than pretty things already done and enjoyed.
Looking forward with childish anticipation. And pushing color around in the studio tonight with a bunch of odd pushers: a piece of very shaggy yarn, some skewers, just the gravity of a puddle of water interacting with a little pile of colors, a few small jars sitting on the wet paint. We'll see in the morning whether that is a good one for the students. I'll get out my ink. Salt. Rubbing alcohol. Plastic wrap. Shellac!
susan
The pretty fish above got forever muted when I made the error of putting shellac on them. The shellac picked up the paint some and also darkened the bowls so that they are quite different now, and not as pretty. I will make more like this and keep the brighness. Same thing going on here as in the painting...play. Child stuff.
People like these. I think part of what an artist does for the general public is to allow them to indulge in pushing ideas further than they might otherwise. Music gives more permissions to dignified people to let go and try things than visual arts...and for some reason people are really much more reserved about "trying on" pushy pieces of art, while they are more freely experimental with music.
But experiment is what makes the difference, I believe, between just a nice object and something that is really engaging. I'm going to run with this idea in my workshops to come-- allowing room for people to see what watercolor can do other than pretty things already done and enjoyed.
Looking forward with childish anticipation. And pushing color around in the studio tonight with a bunch of odd pushers: a piece of very shaggy yarn, some skewers, just the gravity of a puddle of water interacting with a little pile of colors, a few small jars sitting on the wet paint. We'll see in the morning whether that is a good one for the students. I'll get out my ink. Salt. Rubbing alcohol. Plastic wrap. Shellac!
susan
