I worked on this palette painting yesterday. Unlike the reading rilke paintings which are large, layered, pondered and begin with photographic references, these smaller paintings are intuitive, loose, quick, imaginative, purposely “under”worked and use up the paint I have left-over on my palette at the end of the day. Many artists use some kind of warm up exercise at the beginning of a painting session. Not I. I’m too fired up and need to begin working on what I’ve been thinking about all night right away. Instead, I use these paintings as a way to wind down and let go of the studio session. Also, always in the back of my mind is the advice of a respected artist who once said that you should always be doing a bit of what you know and a bit of what you don’t know. Although she may have meant doing that all in the same painting, I’m not sure. These small paintings allow me to experiment with what I don’t know.
This painting definitely has suggestions of landscape and could be layered clouds or beach and sky. If you look close, however, it is just tiers of color. I’m going to have to avoid tightening it up!, but it just might need a bit of something more. I’ll post the final at my small(er) works site. 12×12, oil on canvas