Size Does Matter

It wasn't long ago that I wrote about the importance of not being miserly with my artist self.  Because this is an area that I struggle with, I realize that I need to gently remind myself on a regular basis that it is ok to: a) schedule time to paint b) not answer the phone while painting and c) buy paint supplies.  Now buying paint supplies may seem beyond obvious, after all how can one paint without something to paint on and something to paint with?  Well the answer is one cannot.   Unless one is being miserly with one's self.  Then one often finds one's self painting over existing work (not always a bad thing) or painting a format that is too small, or on traditional canvas when one really, really loves large format gallery canvases.

Hmmm.  Last week I shared with you my little painting of the kettle.  I painted over an old painting that I wasn't particularly fond of.  But the canvas was small (16"x20").  I painted a few more little canvases last week that left me feeling dissatisfied (ok... left me feeling angry).  The problem is I love to work BIG!  The second problem is I'm a cheapskate with myself, especially my artist self.

Saturday night I had a dream about a BIG canvas, I saw a very large single iris painted on it.  The background was loose and some of the canvas was left unpainted.  The next morning, with gratitude for the inspiration, I bought the largest canvas that fits in my car (36" x 48").  In the studio I began to sketch from some photos I had taken of iris' in my neighbourhood. 

Background was painted first

Painting the background first, I let it sit overnight.  I peaked into the studio today at 4:30 am and I was still satisfied.  I loved the pencil lines of the flower sketch and didn't want to loose the flowing organic feel of the drawing.  I decided to keep the sketchy feel of the flower by drawing over the pencil lines with a watery charcoal grey colour and then filling in some areas with washes of greys, yellow and black.  Other areas I let the canvas show through. 

Detail of Iris

It is very much "me".  I feel happy, creative and content.  I will try to remember that I need to be generous with myself because sometimes size really does matter.

Thank you for taking the time to visit My Turquoise Kettle Life.

Have a creative day,

Sandra