…continued…
Exercise two was a 2-part experiment–choose three of your favorite colors, paint the sort of subject you normally paint, but use tools you don’t normally use. Randomly, I choose a neon pink, yellow-green, and brilliant blue, which turned out better than it sounds. I used a palette knife and my fingers, and created something that was fun and loose and uninhibited. Joyful.
Part two was to do a second painting using the tools you normally use, which, for me, is brushes. Because I had more control over my tools, it took longer, and I became obsessed with little details, . I liked the final results, but it wasn’t as fun as the first painting. I discovered that I liked using the palette knife.
From this point on, I continued to use the same strange color palette.
The third exercise was to make an ugly painting on purpose. Without too much elaboration, I am quite certain I nailed it. In fact, it’s so ugly, I’m not sure I even want to post a picture of it…Okay, maybe just a small one.
Exercise four was a series of 4 paintings, made with strict limits and in a particular order. For example: make 2 brush strokes, one pencil mark, 2 more brush strokes, a charcoal line, 2 pieces of collage, etc., in that order. As you work through the series, you get more creative and thoughtful about where you’re going to use your marks and strokes and bits of collage. But having those limits also makes the blank canvas less intimidating, and it can inspire you to keep going and create even more!
While the full 10-week paid course is well outside of affordable for me, the four ‘taster’ exercises are something I can use over and over again. EXCEPT, maybe, the ugly painting. That’s not anything I have to practice. I can do ugly without trying!
Did I find my JOY? I don’t know. My joy is always a work in progress. I DO know that I enjoyed the taster course and would do it again. In fact, I just signed up for a ‘Collage Taster’ course…
My advice? Never quit finding your JOY!
-Armanda