when it feels right.

Walk In The Woods
oil on panel - 12 x 16 -$450

Do you ever wish you could press "pause" and "rewind" while painting?  I do.  How to get back to those spontaneous and fresh marks full of  passion, before time allows sober second thought, reworking / tweaking until the original idea is lost somewhere in the blurred vision of your process?!  ha ha ha...  thankfully, it's only art; and what doesn't work, can teach us a lot!  I've been struggling with my paintings this month, so I like to think I'm gaining an education of sorts:)  Usually time and patience shows me the way.

This painting was completed in 3 separate sessions in oils...alla prima for the general idea.  A few weeks later when fully dry, I had a desire to paint out much of the original marks I'd done, using an abstract intuitive approach using opaque tones, which probably only took about half an hour, but it was a uniquely satisfying process, obliterating what I didn't like, and trusting my sub-conscious guide.  I put it on 'the shelf'.  I wasn't quite sure where it would go, but it felt good to let the muse take charge.  A couple more weeks passed, more time to ponder. Yesterday I took it off the shelf again..."what if?"... a few fresh marks.  "Ahh... so that's where my heart wanted to go."   I know it's out of season for posting on my blog in the winter... (after all I began it when it was autumn!) but I'm happy with this little painting.  
I think my favorite thing about working in oils is that it often forces me into a slow process which I have learned is best not to fight...somehow this slow unravelling feels right for me.







 

Art Shows This Weekend

Cottage Window  6x8  oil on panel

Saturday and Sunday this weekend (Nov 19&20) is the Holly & Ivy Art Fair; an event of the Thousand Islands Arts group.  We will be 18 artists and artisans under one roof at the Arthur Child Heritage Museum on the waterfront of beautiful Gananoque.  We'll be there 10am-5pm on Saturday, and 10-4pm on Sunday.  Hope to see you there!
For me it's the first art show weekend of 2016.  I usually participate in several art shows throughout the year, but this year I didn't because of the disruption of moving house.  It feels good to be getting back into it again! ...now if I can just find those boxes of show supplies....lol
I will also have small works at the Holly Jolly Art Sale in Perth at the Algonquin college campus, an event of the RLAA.