Joined

This is the closest I've come to making a painting that feels like my
outsides are beginning to match my insides . . .

Teabowl and Apple

I laid down really thick paint on the objects and kept them small
to continue practice in eliminating detail. One needs to get really
good at value relationships to lay the paint down and leave it alone . . .

Teabowl with Fruit

It's kind of ironic that after my big push to be more experimental,
this painting seems so traditional! Who's in charge here? This is
another handmade pot by Michael Simon.

Triangle

As I was photographing this and even now as I post it, I feel an
underlying itch to "tidy" it up. Every morning I spend about 30
minutes looking at artists whose work I like and they are definitely
not tidy painters. I'm thinking that part of developing one's own
vision is to trust what you respond to in others' work and become
accustomed to valuing it when you do it as well as you can. I need
to keep it around and get used to it until the urge to tidy goes away.
I do see my work as more lively overall: there's less concern with outlines
and boundaries and more focus on making color resonate and how it
relates to the entire surface. The cup is actually a strong gray-blue
but it seemed dull to me so I tried a lavender which perked things up
a bit. I feel progress---less fear in trying things that are not actually
"there" if they contribute to the painting, and more confidence in the
way I judge what I've done.

For anyone on a budget, I'm working on Canson mat board that I seal
with two coats of Liquitex matte medium. The paint glides on, there's
a canvas-like texture and it's archival. And, no need to mount it on a
more rigid surface for framing.

Apple, Cup, Orange

This really isn't what I intended for this painting at all but it was
coming together in a way that I was liking so I decided to forget the
"plan" and just go where it was leading me.

The Set-Up

An 8 x 8 panel seemed huge! Still not brave enough to go where I
think I should (haven't identified where that is) but it was fun to have
a larger surface . . . seemed to help in making me consider the whole
painting and not just the objects. I've been trying to be conscious enough
to have one specific intention before I begin a painting, like for this: to use
many grays and just a few areas of bright color. An intention works as an
anchor if and when I start mindlessly copying or get too obsessed with
individual elements, I can bring myself back to what I intended. I fall short
but am beginning to see glimmerings of stuff coalescing.

Why do I always see the flaws once the painting is on the computer screen?
I should probably work on it more before posting but there's that precarious
edge where I could ruin one small good thing.