Sometimes the canvases come together quickly and sometimes I labor over them for hours. This one was a quickie...sort of.
I painted the background in August of 2011 and then let it sit on my shelf waiting for more. About a week ago I pulled out a bunch of unfinished canvases (this one included) and left them sitting by my easel, under the theory that easy access might lead to them actually getting finished.
The night before I left for Colorado, I was feeling nervous and decided to let off some steam by making an art mess. I grabbed this particular canvas and decided to sketch out a quick face. My intention was to make something "bad." I wanted to let go of some nerves by putting zero pressure on myself and just have some fun splashing paint around.
But, as always happens when you take the pressure off, I ended up quite liking where the bad sketch was headed and finished up the painting rather quickly.
There's something about this painting that's oddly compelling to me. I can't look away.
It's a good reminder to me to (1) release the self-enforce pressure valve when creating, and (2) not overwork my paintings. I like the raw, rough quality of this face very much.
How about you? Do you do better when the pressure is off?
Thanks for stopping by!
