Better head ashore Print

I'm recently retired and now have opportunity to paint daily. What fun! Working with pastels gives me so many options for color and texture that I am not at all jealous of my friends who paint in watercolors or oils. I live near the Atlantic coast and have done my share of boats and shore birds, but of late I've been exploring how an artist can let a painting develop without a plan, without a purpose, standing alone as color, value and form with as little intervention as possible. While I have noticed that the painting will not paint itself, no matter how long I sit in my chair and stare, I have found that somehow suggestions come to me, rather than the other way about. Not always successful, but almost always engaging. Years ago I was in the WVU library stacks, looking into Inca art. One carving by a long ago Inca artist, a cup ornamentation, it turned out, struck me. I decided to copy it, much enlarged, in acrylic. During that process, I am convinced, the spirit of that artist entered me, and now I am giving over my talent, such as it is, to those spirits. As one of the ancients said, "Sing through me Muse," or something to that effect.