Splashing oil onto canvas

Field of Canola
8x8
oil on canvas

I've decided to concentrate on working with oils for the next couple of months. I've put away the acrylics, most of the journals, the watercolors, the sewing, the Little Jo collages, the daily collages. I'm in the process of decluttering my studio so there's room to breathe and to think in a new way.

I have a bunch of gessoedstretched and unstretched canvas and a drawer full of oil paint and mediums. The plan is to paint large and with abandon, putting my heart, my emotions into the work and see what comes out. I'll try not to critique my own work, not yet. I'll just paint one thing after another, working on several things at a time, but working in series, on landscape and maybe some abstracted flowers.

As you see, above, my work is more than a bit constricted. I remember how I felt about seeing that huge field of canola flowers, brilliant yellow stretching to the sky. But when I put brush to canvas my feelings won't come out, not yet... but I'll get there as I put miles on my brush. Big brushes. Big canvas. Splashing on the color. I can't lose.

Even that field of canola with the same composition would be pretty impressive if it was 6 times as large.

Right now I'm experimenting with the materials. I've worked in oil before, under direction in a workshop situation, but now I want to spend the time to see what develops.