Monday Art Salon - August 17, 2015

"Brunhilda" - watercolor, ink, acrylic on watercolor paper,  12" x 18"

Primitive portrait?  Meet loose and juicy.  This week I am playing with large portraits using watercolor, inks and acrylic paint.  This is more fun than one person can stand!  I am crazy about the graphicness and juiciness of this piece.  And using an inkwell and quill is insanely wonderful.  As you may have surmised, I am still in my playground of a studio romping and cavorting with abandon.  And I blame it all on tidying.

Tidying?  Yes indeed.  So recently, a fabulously well-organized and elegant friend recommended a book, the life-changing magic of tidying up.   And I bought it, and read it, and went bonkers in my own house - purging, categorizing and tidying.  One place leads to another, and before you know it everything is in its place.  And now there is nothing (and I mean nothing) in my personal spaces which does not bring me JOY!  Everywhere I look is something I love.  I find myself smiling all by myself.  Many artists are visual people, and making the view from anywhere I am in the house joyful has a catalytic impact on my ability to create.

It isn't just seeing things I love, either.  It is also not seeing things I don't love.  The absence of excess stuff leaves space for opportunity, potential, imajenation and adventure.  No more being sidetracked on my way to the studio by stacks of papers which need tending, or stuff to be put away, or unsightly piles of anything.  Ahhhhhhhh. Bliss.

I fully expect to become wildly messy in my art now.  And what does that mean?  In a very strange and ironic way, the act of tidying everything else has made a MESS something wonderful on a canvas.  Who would have guessed?

This piece is available.  Currently unframed.  Inquiries: imajenation@gmail.com