It's been a while

Oh hello paintbrush, sorry I've been neglecting you...

This morning I did something I haven't done in... a while. I painted. For fun. Just a quick 4x6 paint-sketch in acrylics of a photo I took last weekend. I thought of using a grid to get my proportions accurate, but decided against it for this quick project. Also, I was so eager to get started, I barely took the time to sketch it in pencil at all before attacking it with paint.

The only "rule" I set for myself was not using black. I wanted the dark areas to have a richness that sometimes I find hard to achieve with black. It can be too dense, and when lightened with white, can sometimes seem too cold. I might try variations using black, or perhaps only black and white to explore the tonalities.

Anyway, I'm happy with how it turned out; although I think it looks better from a distance. But more importantly, it felt good, and reminded me happily of all those things I love about painting. The tactile feeling of a brush moving across the subtle texture of the canvas, the marks left behind, and the way the individual strokes combine and blend and build themselves into an image. I need to return to painting with a sense of fun and freedom; as an activity that I look forward to, not a daunting "oh, it won't turn out so why bother" item on a to-do list...