End of summer paintings

I had been a bit idle, and yet actively churning inside my head. That is reimagining how I see colours in front of me and still convey a sense of the place and the moment. Lately I have been going out to paint a few hours before sunset. (Of course, around the corner.) This makes a fun challenge for me because I have to quickly think how I want to convey the place and the moment with whatever colours I have at hand before the mosquitoes have me for dinner. Sometimes if I wasted time on irrelevant details I find myself working in quickly fading light, and I’d have to quickly make my decisions and move on. Sometimes that could be a good thing because such a predicament forces me to not dwell on the irrelevant and quickly move on with the important details. Such as the overall composition and colour scheme.

In a world where you can be anything, be kind. And gladden someone’s heart with lotsa zero calorie eye-candies, but please do not eat the paint. Represented by the Station Gallery.

Doodle

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. Temperature has come down and so has the humidity. What a relief! Here’s to no more scorchers!
We went to Lancaster Pennsylvania to see for ourselves what we had read about in the New York Times. We were not disappointed. The weather was just nice for a stroll around town, but my head was toying with some ideas for a painting. They usually never materialise beyond my head, but it always feels good when I finally make a doodle of what’s stirring inside my head.

I knew someone years ago in the Bay Area, and she was studying why people doodle when they’re doing something else — such as listening, talking, watching television. I don’t know if she ever got her research off the ground. I hope she did because I thought it was fascinating. The act of doodling seems to clear my cluttered mind and places me in a state of relaxation. It didn’t matter that the doodling seemed “childish”. It doesn’t matter if it looks good or bad to you or to anyone else, the important thing is that you got it out like a talk with someone kind who would listen, and it’s meditative.