snap, snap

some of my best ideas fall flat, others are good from the get-go and then there are the ones that require patience

not in the doing, more in being patient to let the results and/or effects reveal themselves over time

in early August I started a new daily practice

if you've been following me for a while you'll know this is nothing new, in fact, if you've been with me long enough you're likely rolling your eyes already...

"Again?" you say?

I get these great ideas and get my kit all organized and after a couple of days, three or four at best, it fizzles out

usually because I overestimate the amount of time I have/wish to devote to it and/or I underestimate how much time said practice will take

I suppose the reason I keep trying to find something that will work is because I have had three very successful ones over the years that helped me a lot

so, back in August I thought I would try doing a paper-based collage one day and a similar thing in fabric and stitch the next

four days in and it was over... the stitched pieces were taking way too long and neither were anywhere near done, and the collage pieces were a struggle - couldn't make my mind up about anything

stubborn though I am,  I ditched the stitch and kept the collage and shifted the schedule to every other day

it worked fairly well - the collages were still a terrible struggle but at least I had every other day off from it... it was so bad I wanted to just quit altogether but I didn't want to be a quitter so I told myself I needed to make snap decisions, if you like it, stick it down... I kept at it and after about ten of them they started to get easier

limiting choices (sort of - I am me after all) and telling myself "snap, snap" when deciding helped a lot

I don't make marks if I don't feel like it - most are just assemblages

some I'm ok with, some I quite like and others I find rather intriguing

these are in the order of recent to the last one being done August 22

I have all sorts of pieces of painted watercolour paper, painted tissue paper and painted copy paper - the one above is acrylic paint on watercolour paper - not a good idea unless you put gesso down first which is why it ended up in the collage box

I cropped it and added a few scraps of papers and a piece of lace - it's busy but I find I quite like busy at times

the next one is another piece of watercolour paper - I had made a gelli-plate printed paper with a part I thought looked like a cliff so that's glued on top of an earlier failed island, part of a greeting card, a torn piece of paper I stamped with a fern stamp I made and then strips cut to look like fern leaves

the one below is one of my very favourites

I just love it but don't ask me why - I don't know

maybe the shadowy grey mountain in the background (random scrap of paper I painted with a scraping tool), the brown piece cut out from a separate paper painted the same way, a torn piece of "map" wrapping paper and other random papers

it came together quickly and easily... the best ones always do I think

the one below makes me think of mountains as well

I want to draw lines on it but haven't made up my mind where so it sits

I've done four or five that are mountains - they all have sharp angles and bold lines

it's given me a lot to think about - why this? why now?

but then I don't want to get hung up on the why's or wherefores right now - I just want to do, and in doing, over time, those questions will be answered - in their own time

and to be truthful, I'm afraid if I think too much about it I will get "tight" in the making and will lose them

and lastly, something else

early in the Spring I was painting with watercolour on tissue paper and got some interesting effects - this was a favourite so I tore it down and glued it to heavy paper

as I was looking at it yesterday I saw a leaf shape in the lower right and also a few random petal shapes here and there

I debated drawing on it but decided not to; instead, I laid tracing paper over top and then drew what I was seeing, following the edges and also the shapes

I did add some extra definition afterward, here and there, just to emphasise certain areas and make it a drawing of a flower rather than just a representation of one which was where it started

so much fun, done on impulse, less than ten minutes

acting on impulse will sometimes give the best results; the excitement is high and the thinking fresh - I read that a few weeks ago and since then I've had a few interesting ideas such as this and I've got at them straight away 

think it, try it