let the sun shine in

Remember when I ordered all of my new paints to start my latest series? Well, along with all of my "go to" oils I also thought that it would be a good time to try out some new paints, water soluble oils. I know it seems a bit contradictory having oil paints that are water soluble (that's why it's taken me so long just to order them) but why not give them a shot? The thought always intrigued me but I guess the mood to experiment just recently sprang over me. Today was the day to get the box out.

For the longest time I thought and thought about what subject matter to paint with these new paints. It didn't seem right to paint what I normally do, after all I have no idea what these paints are like, what they feel like to paint with (glazing, painting with thicker paint and impasto) or what they will look like. I didn't want to try to make these paints like my other oils and be disappointed because they didn't perform like my regular paints do. After days and days I had been working on my regular paintings and had walked away for a second after just putting a clean white canvas on my easel (outside of course). On the walk back, the canvas no longer looked untouched, instead the surrounding environment had created its own type of painting. The shadows of the trees above were placed beautifully on the canvas to create an abstract and interesting composition. At that moment a light bulb went off and I thought, how perfect.



It'll be like a painting experiment where I can play with the properties of these new paints and create abstract images inspired by the silhouette of the trees and plants that surround where the paintings are created. It's a starting point and I have no idea how they will look when completed, but I'm excited about that uncertainty.


One thing that is a must for these paintings is sunlight, without the direct light there are no shadows to be seen or traced. So bring on the sunshine (with some shade of course)!