A small pastel sketch on Biggie paper. Taking another shot
at painting this waterfall on Oak Creek.
This is attempt number 4 of Oak Creek Waterfall. This is only a
beginning with wet into wet soft color. I have some idea where this
is going so we'll see what happens later.
This is what I call noodling! The word comes from using bare
hands to reach under river banks to catch huge catfish. How that
has anything to do with this piece ... well, I started by just spraying
water onto the sheet randomly. Then taking wet paint and dropping
it in the water and letting it stretch. At that point I take a liner brush
with water and draw wet crosshatch patterns that just touch the
wet paint and water already on the sheet. You can piddle with
this for a very long time. Not necessarily a good thing. It was
fun to do. No expectations.
This is the 3rd attempt at this little moutain range. Another
example of stopping to late!
It's been nice being here in Sedona. We did some hiking,
sightseeing, reading, napping and enjoying the sun which
was with us most of the time.
My good friend, Loriann Signori has always told me that the
struggle with painting and searching for happiness while
doing it is always the worst before a significant breakthrough.
Well friends, this should be one hell of a breakthrough because
my struggle here in Sedona has been one for the books.
Practically every day I painted was frustrating either because
they didn't begin well or they didn't end well. I mixed enough
mud to fill the Mississippi, used enough paper to fill a flat
file and turned the light out and walked away more than
I'm used to. I thought I would go ahead and post today's
happenings, not because I'm happy with them but just to show
I'm still drawing breath and juggling brushes. We'll leave
in about a week to head home. Our trip will lead us north
to Utah and Zion National Park, Arches National Park and
Canyon Lands National Park for a few days and then start
our trek east back to Michigan. Hope it's finally spring time!
