How to keep feeling it.

I have a group of 40 cm square pieces on the go, which have stalled a bit. I was finding it harder to get into them emotionally because they are on a smaller scale. If I’m not feeling it, then there is no meaning behind them. Then they just look like coloured shapes to me and I don’t know why I’m doing this. The smaller scale does mean that you can make bigger changes faster and learn things. This week they have taught me to be less outcome focused. To make moves that please me at the time and not think further ahead. I have really gone back into the idea of differences. What can I put down next which is most different to what is already there? I usually start with colour because that it what brings me alive when I’m working. What is the most different colour I could put next to this one? When I can get interested in that I become more invested in the painting again.

In some ways it is easier to play this game early in the painting because there is nothing there that you feel cagey about changing. However I can get impatient. When you have some which are less far along than the others its easy to forget that stage where anything goes. You have to give yourself time to play around before the painting tells you what it is about.