Beginning stages…

I often begin a painting by covering the blank canvas with color. There’s so much freedom and joy in the feeling of a paint filled brush on the stretched canvas. It never gets old. There’s a wonderful ebb and flow to the dance between the brush and canvas, a give and take. Part of the fun is in placing dabs of multiple paint colors on the canvas and mixing them right there with the movement of the brush. The first coat of paint is pure play, with a definite awareness that anything placed on the canvas can be covered up, so at this point, nothing feels precious.

Another early stage of the process is in the construction of raw canvas pieces to fit the paintings concept or focus. This involves cutting, fraying, and stringifying them to size. But before I can do all that, I have to have a sense, and something of a vision, of the layout of the pieces within the whole. The prepared piece(s) help me to get moving forward on the painting and get a feel for the whole. They act as a place holder within the painting as it develops, but may not be the final piece(s) that end up in that particular painting. Many cloth pieces, created for one painting, have ended up in another, or on the pieces in waiting pile.

I love the beginning stages of a new painting… the flow and freedom of creating the first layer of color on the canvas, the feel of the cloth’s texture between my fingers, the pile of strings that develop as I pull the threads from the cloth to create the fringes. It could be thought of as the best part of the creative process, but for me, there are many best parts that take place as the painting’s process develops.

More to come. This is part 2 of a 4 part series.

Next up… The Development Stage - Part 3

You may be interested in:
Before I Begin - Part 1
Completion Stage: Putting the Pieces Together - Part 4