Here is a little story.
I felt like painting, so I got out an 18″x18″ board already prepared with textured gesso. I did not have any ideas as to what to paint but I felt the need to paint, so I started in. Over the next couple of weeks I kept going back to this painting and you can see it’s been many things. Finally I got tired of it and declared it finished.
I do wander a lot in my painting – there is nothing like a plan in anything I do, and even if there is a glimmer of one, well, it usually gets wiped out by some new idea as I’m going along. This painting was more wandery than usual. And I don’t care. It’s finished, good or bad, and I’m doing something else now.
Think about it. I got to paint about 5 different compositions and I only used one surface. If nothing else, I enjoyed myself at a bargain price.
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- End of day 1-23-15
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- End of day 1-24-15
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- End of day 1-26-15
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- End of day 2-2-15
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- End of day 2-3-15
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- Finished 2-7-15. Now it’s called “In the Garden At Home”.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Wonderful transition, the finished art is superb!
Thank you. The process is the fun of it, I think. Not necessarily the result, although it’s nice when the finished product is pleasing.
It’s very admirable that you can just freely paint without a plan. I struggle with that. I have for so long been caught up in the notions of what a painting should be. I try to let it go but there seems to be pressure attached to it, and maybe not wanting to fail. Keep exploring!
Thank you. I think some of it comes from the fact that I’m self-taught so I don’t have any teachers to betray, unless maybe myself! I know what you mean about pressure about what a painting should be. Sometimes I think, what was I thinking? But the in the end I just like to put paint on a surface and I guess as long as I am doing that, well, I feel the process is what counts more than the result. At this stage of my life, anyway!