the way things happen short story

 

I'm scheduled to be the featured artist for October at The State of The Arts Gallery, Olympia, WA. In addition to a dozen small still-life oils, they have also asked for a couple larger paintings. I thought I'd get around to that over the summer. It would be a new experience I wanted to think about it awhile.

Then, last week, online artist/friend Mike emailed me asking to purchase "A Glad Heart," one of the paintings set aside for the gallery. I said yes IF I could paint another similar piece to replace it.

So, this morning I put "A Glad Heart" on the side of the easel and for some reason, I put a 16 x 20 canvas in position to paint. I can't really say what happened next but it was so much fun! In about 20 minutes I had another, much larger "Glad Heart" roughed in.

If I had not taken Qiang Huang's workshop in April, I wouldn't be painting still life again. If State of the Arts Gallery had not asked for a large still life, I wouldn't have painted one. If Mike had not asked to purchase "A Glad Heart," I would not have painted it larger.

It seems my art evolves in steps.

1. The desire to try a new subject or medium.
2. The challenge of making it look the way I want.
3. The comfort zone of producing paintings in that genre (usually until I'm bored and the cycle starts over again).

Staying in one's "comfort zone" too long for optimum physical or mental health has been a family topic of late so it is interesting that I was sort of ejected from my comfort zone today into such a fun place! Now, I don't want to go back to 6 x 6 inches, they seem tedious in comparison.