Part 4 – Stills

While studying at the Visual Arts Centre, I embarked on a focused exploration of sculptural shapes. I confused my process when I chose to include colors as part of the shape exploration. When I became stumped by the limits of my glaze color palette, I decided to return to painting to play with lighting, textures, and colors.

I was already reaching out of my comfort zone, because of the challenges I was experiencing with glaze colors, so I felt it was a good time to get even farther out of it and use oils.

I was curious about the vibrant colors and the feel of blending the colors while still wet. It’s something I had been exploring in the ceramics, but here I could see the results on canvas, instead of having to wait for the final firing of the kiln.

This small series started with using a palette knife and dry brushing, before jumping in to get my hands and fingers in the paint. While I don’t recommend this for health reasons (i.e.: there’s toxic cadmium, mercury, and lead in some of these paints), it did free me to create my “Happiness” series, which you’ll see here those in a few weeks.

ps: I’ve started the process of organizing all my articles on this feature into the book format. It’s very exciting, satisfying, and at times, overwhelming to write a book. If you like what you have been reading in this feature, Please Support The Book Project based on this feature: “The Creative Process” with a minimum donation of $1/month, I’ll send you a free e-book copy upon publication in 2018.