Painting, painting, painting. I have matte medium all over my hands, black gesso under my finger nails, and a mess in my “studio” – the corner of the kitchen I call my own. I was so engrossed that I missed the 2 deer in the yard outside my window until my two-year old came running from another room shouting “reindeers!”
It has been a few years since I approached a large painting with this much zeal. As you can probably imagine, it is hard to deal with artistic inspiration when you have two toddlers. Not just two toddlers, but two kids with fevers clamoring for their working mom’s weekend attention.
So the first day, I waited eight painful hours before actually working on the painting. I couldn’t imagine being able to paint with the kids awake…visions of permanent paint on the walls and furniture, little fingers reaching onto the canvas, collage materials strewn about…halted me. So at about 9:30 I started the piece, and of course 45 minutes later had to stop to let it dry.
Today, with the bare bones of the composition already laid out, and the kids contentedly painting with their new kids’ paint at the kitchen table, I decided to take a stab at adding some colour to my own painting at the same time…and it worked! Suddenly I was working on my painting for a third and fourth time with the kids in the room. They love watching me work. They are so interested in what I’m doing and why, wanting to contribute their ideas as well.
The theme is “the landscape of my memory” which is a series I am developing. It is something that has already come up in some of my paintings, and I am trying to take it further. The composition loosely follows the aerial view of our farm (it won’t be recognizable as such). But will incorporate some of the old things I have around here – artifacts and plants from the land. If I had more canvases (or even boards) I would work on multiple pieces at once so I have something to do while watching paint dry.
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