Quite often, when I am painting, I keep a small stack of cut cardboard postcard-sized pieces at hand to use up the paint on my brush when I want to change colors. I don’t like to waste good paint! And so it becomes part of a random composition that eventually finds its way into something coherent.
I think the most interesting thing about making postcards in this manner is noticing when the composition turns from random paint blobs to coherence in that light-bulb moment when a meaning or a form or a rhythm emerges, and then everything done to it after that is purposeful and to an end.
Of course that means there always needs to be a supply of blank postcards, to keep the process going!
Postcards, made in October 2021.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Brilliant idea, Claudia. These are really wonderful!
Thank you. Once again I think this proves that my best work is accidental in some way or another. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I feel lucky that it happens!
Always wondered about your process for making these.
Yes, I cannot waste a drop of paint, so mail art has always been so helpful in keeping me feeling ok about my use of supplies! And I like the way things always are sort of surprising when I do it this way.
I like the second one especially. (K)
Yes, the print showing through, I think I meant to go back and cover it up and then later I thought it looked good as it was so I left it. By now I should know print is always going to be the thing that should never be obliterated.
Love these.
Thank you!
What you do with these postcards is what I do with my art journals. Spare paint or scraps get stuck in there so that I gradually build up a background on an otherwise blank page. What I am not as adept at as you are is recognizing when a piece has gone from just a hodge podge to something cohesive.
Well, you know, there is always a moment when the card seems to say it to me, and I can’t describe how I know one stage from the other, but there is that sense of things being right, I guess. Then it’s time to stop and not fuss with it (which has been known to happen).