OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE

I’m always amazed at how often I fail to appreciate the most obvious. I recently commented about the muses leaving me for awhile, but the truth is, I LEFT THEM. I left my comfort zone when I began pushing at the boundaries with my window paintings. Suddenly I find myself facing large fields of color and texture, but with no horizon to define sky and foreground, and no specific subject. For a landscape painter, this is a little unsettling.

Somehow the abstract work I’ve done with the clay mono types is not helping me now. I have just completed this large piece, (30x40")using thin acrylic washes of red and diazoxide purple on coldpress illustraton board, and have spent the last 48 hours looking at it, not knowing what the next step will be.




I see two options:
1. proceed as I normally would and work on the board with pastels, creating a landscape, with or without windows.



2. proceed in an entirely new direction, which includes stopping now and considering the piece finished, or, experimenting with other options.



It helps to think of this exercise as a test that artists periodically impose on themselves, consciously or unconsciously, to probe their comfort zones and push at their borders. It does not necessarily mean that change, dramatic or minor, is needed. The result my simply be to reinforce one’s current work, and that there is more to do and learn where we are.

I will let you know how I resolve this issue.