I’m not even sure where to start with this, or where I’m going, and I’m not done yet. The simplest version is, I had an idea for a painting. It came into my mind complete, and gorgeous, and I had no idea how to do it. It was outside my realm of experience except for the fact that I’ve used oils, acrylics, paintbrushes, and canvas.
It is a portrait of Scott, with a wildly colorful background, surrounded by these bubbles of inspiration. My first thought was, I can’t do that, I have no idea how! My next thought was that I could figure it out and that this was an important painting to do. For all the times I’ve told the muses, “later,” it was time to act upon it now. That was a couple of weeks ago. The first half of the week I researched how to create cells with acrylic paints. Then my room became a studio in earnest as I began to experiment with what I had learned. Everything is right there in Youtube videos, but not everything is in the same video. I had a blast! I started with small canvases, different color schemes, different thicknesses of paint, different strengths of alcohol, and differing amounts of water. I could have viewed this entire process as a failure because the first few days I worked with this technique, I didn’t get the colors or the results I needed. Finally, I started to get the cells that I wanted to move forward with the larger canvas.
Then, I began building up the colors that I wanted. I discovered how to make different types of cells with alcohol. I was finally on the right path!
This continues to be an eye-opening experience. I don’t know what I’m doing next until I get to that point. I’m figuring it out as I go along. I’m Trusting the Process.
