Two summers ago I was painting in Normans Cove /Long Cove Newfoundland for 8 days. This 18 x 24 on the left came from that time. Looking at the canvas again transports me in time and place but, more importantly, in mind. The freedom to fully engage in the painting process is a tough business when so many necessary issues of our day to day existence require us to be fully engaged there too. Finding a space for yourself to focus on the work will facilitate growth in the work. Distractions impinging on that space push us as artists back into pattern of past work. Even though I can't disappear to Newfoundland at will, I am able to create spaces, sometime very brief, where full engagement between the artist and the surface can take place. Plein air painting time is an excellent way to get that space and time, however brief, to push ahead with "new to you" ideas. The canvas on the right was a recent "push"facilitated by a patron who kindly supplied a space for a couple of days...
..on the edge of 2012, Happy New Year!
jda
