Painting, part II Tuesday, February 18, 1997 - 10:21am I had another painting session last night... I can't say it was quite as successful as the first round. Do you remember my fear about returning to the canvas cold and timid? Well, I fought that impulse with all my might. You could even say that the looseness and free movement that I was trying to maintain was just a little too forced. In the end, I decided to black out the canvas. I had to sit for a while, contemplating... perhaps coming to emotional terms with the idea of destroying those parts of the painting that I liked. Those parts were compromised, though... no hope of redemption. I just had to declare defeat and go on. I picked up a big glob of black and blue paint on my widest brush... and began obliterating the image on the canvas. My instructor Sandria had to giggle a little when she saw what I had done. It turns out she had done exactly the same thing minutes before to one of her pieces. She reminded me that it wasn't 'declaring defeat'... just the beginning of something else, perhaps something really wonderful. I can buy that. One of my best paintings came out of a similar situation... I blacked it out, and the one that emerged from the ruins was so inspired that it remains one of my favorite pieces. Ah, well... Previous Entry | Journal Index | Next Entry

[ Out of Balance ] author: Gerry Manacsa copyright 1997