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The question I get asked the most about my work is how do you know what to paint and when do you know you are done? I always laugh at that, because the answer is, I don’t. I usually have a color in my head and a very loose idea, then I start. Throw some paint on the canvas and see where we go!

I am inspired by Helen Frankenthaler’s stain painting technique.  Using unprimed canvas the paint is allowed to soak through. My stain paintings are meant to be hung from rods with curtain clips or tacked to wall. This provides the art enthusiast with an alternative to expensive framing.

I paint with acrylics, finding them easier to clean and to blend with water. When painting on unprimed canvas, I begin by soaking lightly with water. The paint will steep through the wet canvas creating the staining effect I’m looking for. I love watching the colors play, mix and blend into their own creation guiding me to the end of our path. One of my favorite techniques is to drizzle paint over the canvas, let it dry, then paint over it. The chaos driven by drizzle gives me my action fix. I want my pieces moving somewhere. 

The expression, “blank canvas” is scary to me. Gives me anxiety. Whether your life is a blank canvas or you are staring at a blank canvas, it’s unnerving. If someone were to tell me, you’re a blank canvas. My thoughts will start racing. WHAT SHOULD I BE? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING? That’s where I get that urgency from. 

I labeled myself as an abstract expressionist because I thought an artist needed a label. What kind of painter am I? The more I read and follow other artists, I find I most identify with action painters and stain painters of color fields. 

I’ve ruined many paintings not stopping, pushing too hard forcing it to flow in a direction it doesn’t want to go. I still think about one piece that I had to paint over. It was bright cheerful hopeful for a new day. And I ruined it by not stopping to take a break and let it sit. As an intuitive painter I don’t know where it’s taking me. I just go where it takes me. Once to a certain point the painting will take over and talks to me. It will also tell me to stop, let me sit, let me be for a while. 

I leave a lot of my pieces untitled. I don’t want to project what I see unto the viewer. I want the viewer to experience my work with no preconceived notions. The beauty of abstract is everyone sees something different. A great conversation starter, right?

I’ve realized as I have grown that a blank canvas shouldn’t be a scary intimidating force, it’s a chance to start over. Make something new, whether art or your life. 

“What was to go on the canvas
was not a picture but an event.”

Harold Rosenberg