This is my view a few days per week now.
At home, I'm working on paintings at lightning speed, in hopes of switching out a few of my bluish paintings on the gallery wall with some new (warmer) art. The goal is next week. I'll keep you posted, but you can also see them by stopping by the gallery during March's First Thursdays Art Walk.
It's been educational at the gallery. I like watching people react to my art, and what questions they ask regarding it. Some people don't seem to "get" it (or at least don't react to it), while others find it downright fascinating. They like the sand, and how it "sparkles." They say it "looks like stained glass."
People like red in Laguna Beach. They say it when they walk through the door.
One of the best parts has been having to answer questions about my philosophy and themes. I often avoid answering that question internally (it seems too complicated), but now I'm required to say something, so I'd best know what I'm talking about. "Why do you paint circles?" is a complicated thought, and one that I don't exactly know how to unpack. I've always painted circles, from the first painting I've painted circles. Hmm. I mean, I have some ideas, I know it's related to spirituality, to science, to the cosmos, to Zen, to completeness. The trick is being able to squish that down into an intelligent sounding sentence.
I'm learning to paint faster without skimping on quality. Mostly this means making a decision about what to do next and then completing that step confidently. What I am skipping is the hemming and hawing, the unnecessary steps and layers that add nothing to the painting except time. I'm learning to know what I want ahead of time, and how to achieve it.
I'd thought I was probably going to move away from sunburst designs this year, and now I find myself obsessively painting them again. I guess they were not perfected enough, maybe they never will be, maybe I'll paint new and interesting sunbursts for eternity. I'm excited about them, truly. I feel like I've opened up a new window in color exploration, and a sunburst holds the color just the way I want.
