process

wip - Series Doggies

Still playing with texture as backgrounds. Moving on from faces I decided doggies might be fun. I had these 6x6" canvases already painted. you might remember them?

When I went upstairs today for my 'art time' I wasn't really in the mood to work on them. They are close to done but not quite there. I really hate the final tweaking stage. Not quite enough work to keep my ADD brain happy but not happy enough with where they are to say, "Stick a Fork in'em. They. Are. Done!"

What to do? What to do?

I grabbed another 3 5x7s that had been gessoed and texturized from a previous session. Started layering on paint. Sloshing this way and that way. White gesso. Then slashes of colour. no real thought to how or why. just slosh.  blow dry .. Rinse. Repeat... And as I was immersed in this process, I noticed the doggies sitting over to the side out of the corner of my eye and could see a few 'need to do's' ... the photo above was taken before I did anything and you'll note that the left ear is too narrow at the base. I hadn't noticed that. And the leftside of the face wasn't shaded correctly. and lest you think I'm going for anatomically correct, I'm not. but it still looked 'off'.

I realized that this is part of my process. the need to take full focus off the current work, set to one side, work on something else while my brain sorts out what needs to be tweaked. sloshing paint as a base didn't need my full attention. essentially busy work that allows time for rumination.

not unlike mowing grass.
or washing dishes.
weeding.
even running.

we need this busy work to enable our brain to ruminate and figure out what comes next.
where our art ...or our lives... need tweaking.

long live busy work!