What's the plan?

The question students asked me all the time...

"do you know what you're going to paint when you start out?"

My best answer is...

sometimes yes & sometimes no.

If you've been here to my blog before you know I'm a mixed media artist, so paper and paint usually come together in my work...and sometimes netting, plastic, oil pastels and anything else that may be on my studio table when I paint.  Though I mostly start by laying down papers on my surface...sometimes I have a plan like the floral papers above for the floral painting below...and sometimes I just cover the whole surface with paper and hope that  something comes to mind.

Here are four 24"x24" florals I think I'm done with...I've put them aside to let them rest and I'll come back to them and take another look before I call them done.  In this case I knew I wanted to do a series of 4 florals, so I pulled papers that worked, making each on a little different.  In this case, I had a plan.

Papers scattered about on a surface with a vague idea of the floral it will turn out to be.

Often times though...I have no plan...just a surface I need to cover up and get something started.  So I'll pull together papers that create a background for me to work on,  sometimes neutral and sometimes busy, usually with colors that work together...just depends on the mood of the day.  Once I have the papers down I start to pull out a shape by negative painting the background in, making something appear that I can work with.  As you may also know...I'm partial to florals.

In this piece I used kitchen & bath caulk to outline my vase and plate

and add a little dimension.  Notice that most of the papers were painted over,

leaving them to peek through the surface of the main elements.

Below I used maps, drywall tape, a post card and a rendering of a head...and turned it into 

"Mulling Over Coffee"

I especially loved the little figure of the woman sitting, didn't want to lose her, so she ended up on the coffee mug.

This piece below was totally random pieces of paper, fabric, 

even punches out of my hole puncher.

I ended up covering most of it and crating a simple, happy floral...

with a womans face peeking out.

This piece below also started out with papers all over it...no plan.  

Then one of my students, Jolee Pollack, gifted me with a scrap of plaster covered canvas from her stash and I threw it down right in the middle of my surface.  Voila...a pitcher and a vase appeared in the center of a tables cape.  

Once I had the element down, the rest fell into place.

"If We Were A Bluebird"

Juried into ( and sold ) at the Oceanside Museum Of Art Artist Alliance show...

In The Moment

So...to answer that question again...

sometimes its planned and sometimes it's all about being open to what shows up.