Even though I haven’t posted about it, I have been painting a bit. Just not as much as before I found my job. The job is great, by the way, I feel good there, but I have very little energy left when I get home. Not enough to really focus. And you can see that in my painting… it’s more vague, more intuitive, and more fluid. It’s also probably less interesting to look at, because I mainly paint to relax and empty my head. I don’t have a real plan when I start, as opposed to before.
For me this is quite interesting and educational. I pick colours, let shapes emerge, and then I follow my imagination to see what the painting will become. I usually paint freely the first day, making bigger shapes of colours that I like, and the next day, when it’s dry, I add some extra detail if I like. Today I made this:
I’m using Arches paper, which is more expensive, but great to work with. I made this painting in three days. On day one I only added the blues, greens, and browns. On the next day I made the tree on the left and the grass, and I added some more shades to the lake. Today I added the little sailboat to have an interesting detail. The painting is not that great, of course, but it’s fun to make, and while doing this I learn a lot about how my paints behave. I’m quite pleased with the forest behind the lake. Its colours work quite well.
I started a new painting today which is still in step one: big blobs of colour and vague shapes. I’m letting it dry now, and perhaps I will continue with it tomorrow.
For this painting I started with the background (the yellows, greens, and blues). The part on the right started to look like a cat, so I went with that. Somehow, cats keep showing up in my doodles… it’s because I love them so much. Then I added some peonies on the left.
I’m not sure what I will do in the next step. I kind of like the cloudy cat with its magnificent tail. Adding to it may spoil the effect. I will sleep on it and decide tomorrow whether I will work on it more, or not (yet).
