# 7 Recap 9 squares and flowers

Over the last many weeks we tackled flamingos, London mist, moody landscapes and rivers, flowers and the sun. Enjoying  our creative energy pushing paint on 900 square inches of linen canvas surface. With the exception of the subject, enough freedom to do our own thing.

Always striving for more paint, overall simplification with suggested shapes of colour.....not seriously detailed epics. Really learning how to use our materials - exploring and getting to know how things work. Developing intuitive motion, no serious thinking, just doing it! Not worrying near as much about composition as moving paint around on a canvas.

Yesterdays (9) square session was quite the opposite.  It was a game of "tick-tack-toe" painting, a forced swim to paint the details, replicating each section closely as possible using lots of paint. The creative aspect of painting was all but removed.......mmmmm. How much fun could that be?

Nine square is painting nine small paintings complete to make one cohesive large painting. Perhaps nothing new about that, except its a random approach to develop awareness and observation skills on a microscopic level - an odd thing for a loose direct painting method, but effective.

    TEAM OPTIONS

  

"TEAM PHOTOS" 

TERRY (below) USING THE RANDOM FACTOR WELL

Terry never missed a session and I believe attended most of the live demos before hand and it shows. Terry is making progress developing her own unique style of painting, and including using more paint with some lovely  tonal  colouring and brushwork too! Clearly stated by her second square....:=)

 

 Uniquely different, but clean colour prevails with each artist.  

WHEN A SQUARE GOES SOUTH WIPE IT OUT!

Ellen's 2nd square didn't work so she wiped it out and tried another approach. This time a little more structural drawing as opposed to a direct painting.  

Lesson: As we complete each square our approach is modified making the next smoother and so on.

BETTY'S NOT MESSING AROUND!

PEGGY HAS A GOOD CLEAN START - WITH HOMEWORK AHEAD

 KATHY JUST WENT FOR IT!

No Nine Squares for this artist! Kathy. made a serious level move Saturday, she  clearly synced up her brush with her thought process and truly took command!  KUDOS! 

Kathy's tonal painting reminds me of moonlight - can't wait to see it at the finish line:=)

BONNIE HAS LUMINOSITY IN HER CORNER

From the start her colour sense and style lean heavily in the direction of luminous colours. She also did battle with her new home easel and ended up with a concussion - I'm surprised she managed a good square at the end of the day.

EVENTUALLY SUSAN BOUGHT INTO THE RANDOM FACTOR:=)

Susan is the free sprit on the team so it's a challenge for her to stay in the "Tick-Tack-Toe" lane. No question her brush and thought process are in sync!

TAPPING OUT THE SQUARE HELPED  NEW TEAM MEMBER

COACH'S PLAYING FIELD - LIKE THE REST OF THE TEAM - MY NEXT FEW DAYS WILL BE PAINTING SQUARES!

We artists are funny creatures - we invariably take the complicated route whenever possible. We seem to have a need to challenge ourselves, reverse things - get things out of order - move em around a bit to suit. What we really do is set in motion more problem solving issues to deal with while painting.... absolutely not a bad thing.... desirable if you can multi-task and paint fast and confidently at the same time.  

You want to avoid the brush lagging behind the thought process..........to enjoy painting, it has to sync up sooner than later. It's a deliberate fast moving action not accidental.

Problem solving is something that develops with experience. However when (as many of us are) at the front end, not quite sure and confident of ourselves, it can set us up for a good case of floundering....and often does.

Best advice, Learn how to paint an object first then mess with it. The rest will fall into place automatically when we're ready and not a moment before.

So, less experienced painters, coach suggests keeping it simple for awhile, knowing full well its the nature of the beast to mess with it....... I do so with a smile:=)

LIVE COMPLIMENTARY DEMO

FRIDAY JULY 22nd 

Crossroads Art Center in CLASS ROOM 1 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm or until I get done!

CONTACT CROSSROADS AT 804-278-8950 TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT.