R is for Ready and Results

I am ready. Finished the ten pieces I am submitting to the Big 500, Peoples Art of Portland show. Finally.

This project which I thought would be easy was a challenge for me on a number of levels. Now that I'm done I am pleased with the results.

When I first started to work with them, I found it very difficult to make acrylic paint look good on the 10 8x8 boards provided by Chris Haberman who runs the show.

Though I had some ideas for images, nothing I tried out was remotely working for me. So, I tried to search online for examples of other works created for previous Big 500 shows, I did not find much.

To add to my angst and fear of failure, my very dear dog, Rosco, had passed away leaving me sad and not creative. I needed inspiration.

Then, as so often in my life, two times in a day, from two different people, the same advice - paint all the boards as one piece. I could begin - though I had no theme or plan beyond the most basic and easiest - take a line for a walk across the surface of the 3x3 square of nine blocks. I gessoed as recommended. Then brought out the colors.

I thought about what thousands of art covered squares in a gallery would look like - and how I could get anyone to see, let alone buy, my paintings. COLOR! Its what I do best. Limited palette, paths of color flowing over the surface. Hot and cool. The paint looked horrible. I felt absolutely discouraged.

I experimented with adding water color crayon on top of the paint layer, rubbing with pastel, over painting with a single color, nothing worked. Until I thought about drawing lines and patterns with acrylic paint pens on the surface of the paint. Finally !  Once I got started it was easy, and I really enjoyed the freedom to just play with the shapes and patterns.

So, here are four of the ten pieces. The moon picture I showed yesterday is also in the collection. The pieces will be displayed randomly throughout the show - which is too bad because I think they look awesome in a group.