New Series...Why I Paint...

This is the new series I'm working on...well, it's the first phase of the series.  It still needs a bit of work.

Last Friday was First Friday…yep, I’m sure you have heard me speak (read) about his happening before. It’s more than a way to sell my work; it’s also a way to connect with the general public. Sometimes about my work but much of the conversations I have, no. It’s about art in general. Last First Friday, I was chatting (which I do a lot of) with a gentleman that was interested in my work. He wanted to know if I also painted still life and/or landscapes. Yep, I do…not well but that’s not the reason why you won’t mine in this gallery (Art Bank). I paint/draw/sketch vistas and still life in my sketchbook mostly…as a way to grow as an artist. Do I enjoy painting landscapes, no. That’s why I have a digital camera.

I’m not saying to I do not appreciate the works of others that paint realism (or a better term is representational), I’m just saying that I don’t enjoy painting them nor having that type of painting in my home. It’s also the reason why I walked away from painting over 20 years ago. In that era, if I wanted to paint, it had to be realism. That was what everyone taught. I told myself then and still hold on this, if I had to paint big red barns and flowers for a living, I won’t paint. So I didn’t then, and I won’t now. That does not mean that I don’t work on portraits and landscapes, it does help me grow and enhance my skills. That’s also why I work in visual journals and in sketchbook.

 

I was asked why I paint abstracts. Well, where as I have seen such well done copies of nature (landscapes) that have left me with my mouth hanging open BUT I’ve never been moved emotionally by those works…nor has one ever sparked my imagination.

So…if I can paint so that either someone’s emotion or imagination has been engaged, I have done what I’ve strived to do as a painter. Mmm…I still have a long way to go yet.

 

 For the time being, this series is finished...I will come back to it in a couple of weeks but I need some fresh eyes to move forward with it.

(Painted on cradled panel in acrylic with lots of texture and mediums; 10x20)

  MoonWorld kitties are going to be a long term series...the works are on 140lb Arches paper, 11x14 matted, and are mixed water media.  I've painted many smaller but I'm thinking that I would like to take these even larger with more details.

Ok...I'm off to get a few things done.

Later Gators,

~Moon