Artist Thoughts: Everywhere

Sitting down and creating the time to think about and to write about my artwork is a new practice for me. I stopped art journaling a while ago.. I used to journal a lot to test new colors and try new ideas. It’s inevitable then, that journaling may go to the wayside once best practices are learned and hours of experience are gained. I feel like I have grown out of the paces of journaling and have become much more comfortable on canvas.

I recently completed this abstract fine art painting, “Everywhere”. It is 16x20” on flat canvas.. The painting started its life as something completely different. “Everywhere” is a re-do of a rushed, contrived, piece that was a product of my creative purge a year or so ago.

I don’t recall the painting that was on this canvas before, and that seems strange to me. A quickly forgotten work…however today while I was speaking to my friend, I could easily recall a journal page that I created almost ten years ago. It could possibly be that the painting that lived on this canvas before “Everywhere” was “empty”… and that is why I chose to cover it up.

There are a few sweet spots on this painting that speak to me the most.. as often Is the case when I work. I take care not to cover those spots as the painting progresses, and when everything works out and I can see those spots in the final version of the painting, it feels good. There is a patch of green near the lower left corner that is practically identical to a paint color that I used to see in my grandmother’s old house… the color is also in my garage… near the sink… in a spot where someone missed covering it with the new paint color. The green is worn… it has been there for some time, and it looks exactly as this accidental green patch in this painting.

I am working to introduce dark marks more prominently into my paintings. “Fans of Julie” for a while may notice the difference. Most prior paintings are very subtle, ethereal, analogous works, where colors harmoniously blend together. The new art is more deliberate. I feel like the newer art is like your loud-mouthed cousin perhaps…you see the relation, but you can certainly also see the difference.

I work to blend the new and the old, and to see how they can live happily together…and that is where I am right now, friends.

PS- is THIS the new journal?? Time will tell. ;) 

“Everywhere” Original painting. Click here for more info. (Dog not included.)