There are always a few older unfinished paintings in the storage part of my studio. Sometimes I begin working with an idea that is ahead of my skill level, and although I remain interested in the idea, I cannot resolve the work yet. Other times the original idea is simply not worth pursuing.
It's good to have these odd unfinished works around. When I need a break from my usual studio routine I sometimes rework some of them; the results are not so important, it's just fun to explore with colour, pattern and shape.
Today was one of those days.
I began by loosely brushing a white border on some abandoned abstract paintings. Then I collaged a bit of white rice paper, and added layers of paint in varying transparencies. My only parameter was to work in repetitions of loosely square shapes.
Six hours and many layers later, they look like this:
It was a fine studio day, doing something a bit different and re-visiting those little abstract pieces and, I think, improving them quite a bit.
I like that there are many aspects to my creativity in making images.
There's the side of me that likes to explore things which are very deeply felt but cannot be expressed in words; not necessarily emotions per se, but a kind of mostly-wordless philosophy.
There's the side of me that really enjoys the meditation of plein-air landscape painting. There's the side that is intrigued with technology, making portraits through online video connections.
And there is the side of me that likes to explore purely decorative work, playing with the formal visual elements, experimenting with materials and making no attempt whatsoever to imbue the finished work with any sort of meaning.
Today was one of those days.
