Intuitive Art, What's That?

Here's one of my new sky paintings, "The Promise of Light". It's hanging in the Encore Gallery at the Taos Center for the Arts. Finally an in person show, their first since the pandemic began. It's so nice to be able to go and see an exhibition again!

"The Promise of Light", 20" x 20", oil on canvas, $800

The show, "Emergence, Cultivation, Growth" will be on view until June 27th. The gallery is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 2-5pm, limited hours yes, but open at last!

You might wonder how I picked this piece for the show "Emergence, Cultivation, Growth"? Some of you may already know that I don't paint to themes! I've found over the years that I can't make myself paint specific things, I need to let the artwork flow out of me in whatever direction it needs to go.

My artwork is intuitive, what does this mean?

Emergence:
This means that when I start, I don't know where it will go. I lay on paint and trust myself that something exciting will emerge.

With each painting, I start by laying down color. For me, it's all about playing with color and design and balance.  Color creates the light. Even though color is my number one, I want each of my paintings to work well even when viewed in low light, so that means paying attention to the lights and darks, the value contrasts, as well as the color contrasts.

Cultivation:
In the earliest stages I'm really just playing with color and marks, patterns and movement. And then the piece starts taking on a life of its own. I know I want to have light and depth, and the sense of a place. As Hans Hofmann said, "In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light."

As the painting proceeds, it becomes more of a back and forth, a delicate dance. Each mark tells me what's needed next.

Growth:
I let the painting take me where it needs to go. For me, that's the way to create my strongest art. I need to continually explore new ideas and grow.
                      

         
This spring I've been working on new sky paintings. Here's one more. Our skies here in Taos are gorgeous and ever changing. Wild storms blow through, the sky darkens, lightning strikes, though too often not a drop of rain hits the ground. Before you know it, the sun is shining again. We were very lucky to just get a good soaking rain, here in May, something unusual for this area.

Below is "Rain Dance" in situ. I love to see my paintings in home settings. Both of these paintings are now available on my website.