Process

Lately I have been giving a lot of thought to the way in which I work.  Not so much the order of what I do or the colours or tools I use, but rather the fact that I tend to prepare a number of canvases by adding pattern and colour and then move on to adding images to those prepared canvases.  I think I enjoy the process of working intuitively, not giving much thought to what I add or how I add it...making circles and lines, dripping paint, grabbing lids and palette knives and different brushes to keep adding colour. 

Following that, once this under painting of sorts is complete, I begin to think about shapes and images.  Once I'm at that stage I want to try out all these different ideas seemingly at once and am so grateful to have prepared a number of canvases.  When I begin to struggle with one painting in progress, I can easily move onto the next and the next again, working out the pieces I struggle with and allowing others to rest when they need it.

The other thing I have begun to notice about myself is the fact that when I have a pile of work together I feel claustrophobic and look forward to moving it out to galleries.  And then, once my studio is empty I begin to feel like I haven't accomplished a thing or just feel bereft when all that hard work is no longer around.  Yet, having the empty space is actually quite freeing for creative ideas to flow.  I'm grateful to have my portfolio in a binder so that I can sit and look through the work....both for a sense of personal satisfaction that I have done this work, and also to stir my imagination once again.  Oh the joy of living inside my head.