The Journey

“Those who carry on their work as a demonstration of preconceived thesis may have the joys of egotistic success but not the fulfillment of an experience for its own sake.”

 John Dewey, Art as Experience, p.144

I found this quote tucked in the binding of an old journal last week.  I returned to it again today after a frustrating morning in battle with a painting.  In an attempt to grow – and not just produce hundreds of little paintings that I know will work- I tried a larger piece again today.  I used a bigger knife, larger shapes; all of the things I thought would fix the problem.  I had progress, but not complete success.  But today I remind myself that this is necessary for the journey.

Prepared to Paint

The are the panels I use to create the smaller Chromascape paintings.  I start out painting the panel with acrylic.   I originally used just red and orange to get the warm under painting.  Now I have begun using greens and blues as well.  I often select the compliment of the landscape palette as the under painting hue.   This intensifies the color I put on top of it.  For example, if my Chromascape is based on purples, the panel I start with will likely be yellow.