​When I am feeling a little stuck, stale, or just want to shake things up a bit in my studio practice I have been turning to a wonderfully freeing painting exercise.

​The purpose is to paint without expectations for the outcome, and in so doing removing any perceived pressure to create a “good” work of art. Which usually results in something fresh and exciting!

Sometimes a change or a shift in the art making process is intentional. Like when you realize things are getting a bit stale, or you want to tackle a new technique or color palette. And then there are the changes that just show up and surprise you. When this happens, you are faced with a choice of either returning to your usual comfortable pattern of art making or allowing for the change to guide you to new places.

​I felt a shift was coming in my work along with the seasonal shift from summer to autumn. I was making small paintings on paper that I began in my usual way with expressive marks and large swatches of color. I already had the intention of limiting my palette and using more subdued color to allow for a sense of cohesiveness. However, I stopped short of my usual completion process because I felt a strong connection to the immediacy I found there. These were bolder and more expressive than my previous work. Could I allow for that?

“I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to
paint what it leaves with me.”
~Joan Mitchell~

Back in January I made an entry in my art journal that I wanted to work on something “small, steady, and focused” with my painting. When looking over my progress from the previous year I felt that I was all over the place, trying out processes in many different directions. Which was all good and certainly worthwhile, but I felt it time to step back and redirect my attention. And so, the idea of a new series came about that I call Field Notes.

Our world is full of texture. Almost as much as color, I am keenly aware of the textures in my environment. Soft grasses, bristly pines, wispy clouds, ripples on water, are just a few of the endless textures we can experience in the landscape. Keep reading to discover why I love the element of texture in painting.

​I am thinking about rhythm as I continue with my posts here considering my paintings as they relate to the elements of design. Besides music, lots of things have rhythm. I enjoy the rhythm of the seasons, a rhythm to my days, and the calming rhythms of ocean waves. And I enjoy adding pattern, through repeated elements or motifs, into my painting compositions to create a visual rhythm. Repetition is probably the easiest way to express rhythm in painting by repeating any of the design elements throughout a composition.  Repetition can suggest movement through a visual tempo and provide a path for the eye to follow.

​My intention to post here monthly fell apart at the end of 2018. So here it is a new year, a fresh start, and a good time to talk about balance. I obviously lacked a bit of balance when I allowed busyness in the studio, and with life in general, overtake other areas that are also important to me, like posting on this blog! I know it’s not easy keeping all the parts of our lives in balance, and it is something I often hear about, the attempt to keep a sense of balance in our lives.

​Creating a feeling of spaciousness is something that I struggle with in my abstract landscape works. The spaces I strive to create in my paintings are a direct response to the landscape here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is distance but also a closeness of rising mountainsides, tree lines and forests.

It took me a while to see it.

I have fallen into a way of working in my sketchbook that feels just about right for now.