there's been a shift in my thinking of late
not sure exactly what's brought it about... perhaps I finally just got tired of wanting to work in certain ways and decided to actually do something about it
perhaps it's the sense of time and the years slipping away from me
or it might be the influence of some of the Stoicism reading I've been doing
maybe its all of that and more
regardless, I am in the midst of the biggest spurt of creative energy I have felt in more than five years
and oh my does it feel good
several years ago I purchased a sketchbook challenge with thirty days of prompts
I started with gusto but fizzled before the halfway mark... recently I began again and have just completed Day 17
below are the outcomes of two prompts
for the one on the left, the prompt was to do something you would do if you never had to show it to anyone, most especially online
I chose to copy a sketch of JMW Turner, a favourite from a book that is a facsimile of one of his sketchbooks
(and here I am, posting it anyway!)
gesso on the page first as this sketchbook is made of drawing paper
then watercolour
the dark blotch at the top of the page is ink that came through from working on the other side but it seemed to fit in well enough here so I let it be
my favourite part was working on the sky
it's also the part that scared me the most!
the page on the right is the result of a prompt to revisit old work
I had done some dark squiggly trees a while back and wanted to revisit them, this time with added snow, and silver foil - but in an abstract way, not a representational one
I began by laying down a dark blackish green but it got too thick and heavy, looking like a large,
rough-edged triangle taking up 1/3 of the page or more
I scratched into with the flat end of skewer, pulling back a good bit of the paint, added a lot of swirly scratch marks and then let it dry for a while
next was titanium white paint (all acrylic paints in this one) but it started to turn grey so I brushed in more of the black-green and then it got really messy
frustrated, I grabbed a 1/2" flat brush and started trying to brush in tree branches but within ten seconds I realized everything had splodged together to make a deep blue-green that looked remarkably like the water of Marsh Lake
holding my breath, I kept going with the motion, bringing in more and white as I moved from the right of the page to the left
and then I stopped and walked away, before I could mess it up
when I cam back an hour later I saw a rising wave
I could never have planned this
if I had said
"today I'm going to try painting a wave at Marsh Lake"
I wouldn't have had a clue where to begin
but in trying to paint an abstract tree I ended up with this
which also clearly demonstrates I know nothing about painting abstract trees in snow!
but I'm taking the gift
and grateful for the lesson
show up, do something, see what happens
take care,
Jillayne
