Inside Out

 
Inside Out   6 x 6 inches, Oil Pastel on Masonite

The latest in my ongoing exploration of abstract painting with oil pastels. I had forgotten how much I love this medium. I am using a palette knife to apply the paint by scraping pigment from the sticks so I can get a painterly effect that is similar to what I might get in oil but the process is much more immediate. I continue to dream of going bigger but the smaller size seems to be working for now as I explore and regain my comfort level working from the inside out with no external reference.

When I teach landscape painting I point out the need for a single focal point. Paintings have a top and a bottom, right way to look at them and wrong. I am breaking all the rules with these paintings intentionally. There is no right way to hang them, no top and bottom. I create them by constantly turning the canvas and working from every angle. I want them to be equally successful from every vantage point, like sculpture. There is no focal point. Instead there is a random arrangement of shapes and colors and textures. That is all. No deep meaning. Just whatever comes and feels right.

It was a good day to be at my studio. The sun was out and Santa Fe River was running below my window. Ice and snow is melting creating lots of mud to tip toe around, and I succeeded in creating another painting I like. All is well in my world.