Drifting Up

Notes taken directly from my reflection journal, uncut and unedited:

With this one my system which I wrote about with the second painting in this series Holding Sway, seemed to be tiring or becoming trite to me. I found myself wondering if I’m still hanging onto too much realism like the paintings look too much like bedsprings? I kept feeling like I was bouncing uncontrollably between a realist approach and an abstractionist. I enjoy the perception of volume in the actual image. The hues are more saturated and feel thicker which is what the gray seems to be doing, however I am enjoying painting the negative spaces on top of everything. It begins to become visually, what I’m after: getting the negative lighter spaces to feel like what a street light looks like in the shadows of a tree at night. Those bits of light seem to hover over/on top of the scene even in reality. I’m still not there yet, but I’m close. 

The shadows in the actual image seem to be hitting the wall and floor more like rain drops – I didn’t portray that in the painting as much as I feel like I wanted too, yet if I had, had that thought too much during the painting process perhaps that would have influenced HOW I painted them. I’d rather have the “spirit of the moment” capture my brush hand and my imagination – just paint while I’m in the flow.