In my last blog I featured a little painting called "Rock Band". MY painting method got me out of the creative dry spell I had been in -  thick, fast, and loose and not much attention paid to details. In fact, I literally "painted what I saw" without much regard to what each shape and color was. I am telling the truth when I tell you that, until I was halfway finished with the painting, I did not identify the guy at the keyboard in the center of the painting as my own son John!

This is not a bad thing. As many agree, a bad painting habit can be to get overly caught up in details without letting the painting do the deciding, and letting the creative side of the brain take over. And, here is another example: my original purpose for writing today's blog was to extol the virtues of painting a series on a single subject, or of a single style or atmosphere. And, actually, I do think that this is a fine idea - to thoroughly explore whatever it is that has caught your attention as a creative person. After viewing "Rock Band" last week, several people asked me if was going to paint more works in my "new style", which they said they loved - loose, liquid and swooshy. And I will, and the attached painting "Cowboy on Bourbon Street" is the first of a series I am calling "Night Lights". Two or three more paintings will probably be in this series, and I am tweaking my materials or methods or subject matter each time. It's a learning experience for me and very enjoyable.

But my secondary purpose for this blog has turned out to be an encouragement to artists to allow themselves to veer off the path most traveled (by them) and to experiment with letting their "fingers do the walking" to see what happens. It might be a happy surprise!

I was just going to say that I "worked hard" in getting myself out of a dry spell, but that is almost the opposite of what I did - I actually worked around it. My studio never looked neater than now, I have lists of things to do and people to contact and upcoming shows and blogs to write, and on and on. These are things that needed doing, but tended to get shoved aside for the greater pleasure of slapping paint on a canvas. Can't tell you how many times I have heard women artists say they wished they had a wife to do all of the above, as many male artists have. Maybe that is a good thing after all.

After a couple of days of puttering, (and one has to be careful not to get carried away in that mode and get stuck there) I got a small canvas and a favorite easy subject and painted. And, hurrah, it felt good and the painting wasn't half bad. Started a second canvas from a photo of a rock band - "Dead Western Plains" (don't ask, I don't know) sent to me by my son several months ago. Good time to try it, I thought. Had...a...blast!!

Going to keep that attitude. Yes, making good art is work, as we all know. But if you don't love your work, it will look like it.

I felt like Van Gogh all last week - not the style or his type of talent, just the despair. Well, really just crankiness. For the life of me, I just couldn't paint anything! Canvases were flying off my easel ... and ultimately turned toward the wall, trashed, or scrubbed squeaky clean with turps. 

Took a break for several days, tweaked my website at www.mungerart.com, signed up for Open Studio Tour in November (surely I will be on track by then), cleaned my studio and stacked bad stuff in the corner to be gessoed over when the temperature drops in AZ and I can do it outside. Also, a funny thing: I found some not-so-old paintings that were kinda hidden in the closet, and I found that I liked them! Going to hang those puppies up! Feeling better, taking a deep breath (as all the politicians say), pulling out a glistening fresh, medium sized canvas, selecting subject matter that always makes me happy...maybe a Flamenco dancer...and I am going to have some fun in the studio today. Maybe I can post the results in a future blog! Soon.

May my muse return...Please? 

Just finished a new painting, displayed with this blog entry. I am continuing with my efforts to loosen my brushstrokes, experiment with colors, and resist the temptation to fiddle too much (my natural tendency as an ex-portrait painter), while still enjoying the process. In a previous blog I opined that we may as well enjoy our efforts at painting just now, since most of us are not enjoying the process of raking in money in this time of consumer frugality.  Don't they understand that art is a necessity!!

Contrasts: warm vs cool (colors); light vs dark; loose realism (figure) vs abstract (suggested forest greenery in the backgroup, just blocked in as abstract shapes).

So little time, so much to discover. Play on.

This phrase is attributed to Proverbs, and we artistic types, including myself, could stand to live by that one!

Why is it a truism that one negative comment (or even only slightly less than positive than the comment expected and desired) about something we have created can just set us down hard on our rumps for days? Creating even more negativity, of course. And much less energy to create, especially in these tough times for artists.

However, one sweet confirmation of what we are doing lifts us up on a cloud of happiness and creativity that needs to be nurtured and coddled, because it is so fragile. (Thanks for the kind words from dear friend and wonderful artist, Sandra VanderWall, www.sandravanderwall.com).

Since I am sure that this applies to more than just the artistic types, I vow to verbalize more often the many positive feelings I have about the actions, words, creations of others. Light the candle and pass it on!