Morning Painting Exercise [Three]

I am still going strong on the morning exercises. Today I woke up at 6:00am (groggy, yes, but less than I was yesterday). I showered, ate a pretty little bowl of blueberries, brewed my favorite cinnamon tea, and put on my Spotify playlist: Stratosphere [Painting Flow].

Instead of jumping right into action (which I usually do without much thought), I studied the canvas, sipping my tea. I reached for something rather different today: graphite pencils. For some reason it felt right to lay down neutral-colored, sharp yet fluid lines onto the composition. I spent a significant amount of time playing this way, bonding with my graphite, feeling as though I had made some great discovery. Even though it is the most basic of tools, there is something alluring about graphite line atop canvas and amidst paint in its undefined form.

I felt inclined to cover the orange and yellow area in the center, taken by an enveloping whim to bring out complex greys, blues, purples, and turquoises, while masking the almost-insincere oranges and yellows that seemed to be imposters this morning. In general, I rotate the composition every 15 minutes or so, to change up the look. This is both exciting and challenging for me.

One of the difficulties of abstract painting is that there are no boundaries--no guidelines and no definitive end. I think of abstraction a bit like I do life: complex, fun, open-ended, with no direction until you create it, mysterious, beautiful, thrilling, curious. 

A lot of people roll their eyes at abstract artwork saying: "my child could do that" or "a three year old could do that". Perhaps they are correct, but I don't care. Abstract painting is an expression of the soul, and no matter how it looks in the end, it is worth something. Out of all of the art forms, abstraction challenges my mind and psyche the most. Painting this way allows me to get deep into the crevices of my innermost desires, questions, and expressions. To me, abstraction is the dancing of painting.

Here is an image from my third morning of exercises. I stopped almost exactly after an hour, realizing that I had reached a good ending point for the morning. Usually, I am inclined to work in a fury until I can call something "finished." 

This painting is not yet finished. I want to take my time with it. I will know once it is done.

Day Three