Painting for No Apparent Reason

Window to Beyond –
Acrylic on Canvas, 16×20 inches

I came across the picture on my computer yesterday.This painting was sold at least 6 years ago. I don’t see the picture often, but it was nice to see it again. It was one of my first very textural paintings. I think if you click on  it you will see more detail. I’ve made it my computer’s wallpaper for a while. For the past few days I have felt the need to paint. I don’t mean just the urge, or the impulse, or the desire to paint. But the need to paint. To paint for no apparent reason. Just for myself.

Doing collage and relief prints are ways to satisfy an urge to create. But for me, there is nothing like painting for taking me into a whole different place emotionally, putting me deeper into the zone. Springtime has kept me outside, and that is a good thing in its own way. But no matter how many rewards there are in having a garden or making my surroundings beautiful, it’s still not quite the same as cranking up the music and making a glorious mess, getting paint all the way up to my elbows and all over my clothes. When I haven’t painted for a long while, I can feel my world getting a little out of balance. I don’t sleep as well, and things just aren’t right somehow. This goes on for a while until it dawns on me what is wrong. And what is wrong is that I need to paint!

And so, without reasons like a show deadline, or a commission, or a gallery asking for more work, I shall go out to the studio, clear off a place, get out the paints and brushes and rollers and rags, and make a new start.

Here’s to new beginnings.