Tootsie started…

I loved the way the sunshine hit her face as she was looking up.

As I was putting down the basic sketch, I was using pencil rather than charcoal, and was working in a more detailed way.  Normally, I just throw down some charcoal lines and go, but I was kind of getting into it.  This canvas is 20″ x 24″ – which is smaller than I’ve been working, and I was reminded of how much I loved doing smaller, more detailed work.  I wanted to just sit and use tiny brushes and be anal.  It also made me want to just draw, which I haven’t done in, um… years.

Tootsie is an awesome, happy little Pit Bull.  Maybe it’s not so coincidental that I chose to start this at a time when McDonald’s issued a new ad saying that it’s safer to eat Chicken McNuggets than to pet a Pit Bull (which is, of course, completely ludicrous on so many levels).

Anyway, I’ll pet Toots any day over eating a box of toxic crap.

fun with experimentation…

So, in stepping up to the easel… one night I just suck, and the next I’m completely in the zone. I know that this is just how it is for all artists, but what is up with that?

Because I’m hiking or walking dogs all day, I paint at night. I also love NPR, so I often combine the two and listen to On Point or Terry Gross or the Moth Radio Hour or whatever is on. I love them (until BBC News comes on and I run to turn it off before I develop a facial tic).

The thing is, if you allow yourself to paint without any talking, your brain goes into this beta-mode kind of thing where it’s like a waking meditation.  Hard to explain, but it’s like you have absolutely no conscious control over your thoughts, and they’re just below consciousness.  I assume it has something to do with the left brain shutting down and allowing the right to kind of take over, but…  I don’t know.  I should probably dust off one of the books I have in the bookshelf dealing with creativity and the brain.

Anyway, I’m wondering if what I’m listening to is influencing my painting.  Am I forcing my left brain to butt in when my right wants my whole head to itself?  What if, instead of listening to a show on, say, some scientific theory, I have Verdi playing in the background? Hmm.

I’m sure Harvard has done some study on this, but I need to see for myself…

I’ll report back.

Clare, Finished ~ I think

I say finished, but really, it’s more a case of me needing to move on.  I could spend an eternity on every painting, always seeing the details that were added wrong or differently than intended or perhaps never even added, at all.  There is always a correction to be made, another brushstroke to be added.  But these things will niggle at the insides of my brain in the deep of the night if I don’t just put them to rest.

There are certainly things that could be corrected or improved or added, here.  And maybe I will…  it’s not signed, yet.  But for now, I need to focus on another painting.

Goodnight, Clare.