I think I have creative ADD. Just a couple days after writing this post about scale (and how I wanted to work larger and on paper) and on the same day that Tara posted this thoughtful response to my question “can you be taken seriously as an artist if you only work in watercolor?” I decided to bust out my oil paints.
Ok, full disclosure, I got myself some water mixable oil paints. Because the reason I’ve been avoiding my oils (even though I’ve always loved painting in oil) is that I didn’t want to deal with turpentine and other chemicals anymore.
At any rate, I busted out the oil paints, and because I had just discovered a bunch of tiny canvases in my studio (left over from making displays for my jewelry booth) I decided to start small with the oils. As in 4”x4” and 4”x5” small.
But I think that was exactly what I need to do. I’ve been so stressed about what direction I should take my painting in, but ultimately, I think the best thing to do still is just play.
I’ve got my jewelry line dialed in, and while that represents my core brand, I think it’s ok to let my paintings just be about experimentation. So I’m going to let myself follow those creative whims. That might mean little oil paintings one day and big watercolors the next. Or something totally different. The beauty is, I don’t have to be married to one size or material. (It took Tara’s post plus a few flip-throughs of this book of Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract paintings to help me realize that.)
And since I’m just getting back into oils (and since these are so tiny) I’m challenging myself to recreate some of the watercolors I’ve done over the last year in oil. It’s becoming a good exercise in helping myself get familiar with the process and get a sense of what kind of style I’m most comfortable working in!
PS. It’s likely that I’ll make some (or most) of these for sale at some point, it will just be a little ways down the road. (Because they’re oils, so they need time to dry!) The best way to know for sure if and when they’ll be available is to join my mailing list!
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