Two pictures came out of the other night. It had been a quiet sky with little personality, and this put me off immediately. Although I initially felt stuck, I made the best of it as I've learned to do.
It can put me in an unpleasant state when I get to the beach and don't like what I see. This happens more than I'd like to admit. But hey! I always find a solution, not only for the problematic sky, but also to my intense dissatisfaction. In both cases I simply invent what I need to, and this usually works.
It's hard to be angry at Nature, let's face it. It's like being angry at a loved one, I mean, how long can one hold out? Don't we always need to relent to find any peace? We cannot always be in a state of dissatisfaction can we? "That would be a lot of heavy energy", as my cousin Jeannie would say. So it is with me for just about everything in my life; Let it be,,, like the Beatles sang.
But then, (as it usually happens) things change. And so the sky eventually softened, (like me) and it quietly morphed into more muted tones and shapes. I began this first study as small clouds lazily rolled through and in a complete reversal of mood, I found myself wanting to freely play like a kid in a sand box.
This is what came out, to my surprise. But to be honest, this only happened it because the sky opened itself up to me and allowed me in. Indeed, it appeared to even welcome me unto itself like giant doors of a church in medieval France. If it hadn't gone through this set of doors, I would've certainly made another kind of image, possibly one much less friendly-looking than this.
I really love its gentle spontaneity of forms which make up the sky. Looking at it today, I'm surprised that it appears as coherent as it looks when I think of my confused state while painting it. How quickly things can turn around I thought to myself. But I did sense that there was something in it that seemed to have been conjured up from the playful child within me. That is what is always so remarkable about creativity in any way, or form. I wonder if Alexander Calder had been a serious painter, might he have made an image that looked something like this?
By the time I selected another canvas board the sky had indeed mellowed considerably and I had also gained confidence from the first study.
It's quite simple (unlike me) and the sweet colours of confection seem to scold me for my prior displeasure at the sky. It also apparently answers my age-old secret-longing to be a pastry chef. But I really like it, flat as a pancake and full of colour. And like after a fight with a lover, any hard feelings were transformed into a soft opening, one that in painterly terms, could be called a resolution.
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