I like the first picture because I took it just after painting all four pieces on the left. The 9x12 on the right is one of my favorites in the older style. I painted the four pieces one Friday night in my studio with a fun movie playing in the background. What makes this shift in styles interesting and noteworthy for anyone who cares about art at all or about getting to know more about my painting, is that the style came out of nowhere. It is not something I decided to do. And the timing was interesting. During lockdown, painting was never something I did. I was happy to stay home with most of my family here under one roof. I set up a home gym and began exercising and running again with great passion. The time I used to spend painting and reading was filled with getting fit and logging lots of miles while watching great tv. The minute things began to move and open again, however, I felt the desire to paint. And, I do not think it was a coincidence that the style shift occurred after the lockdown and after that break from painting. Like I said, I decided to paint on the floor of my studio that night because during the lockdown I had ordered really large watercolor paper which I had yet to use. Nothing about any of this seems unusual other than the fact that during a time many people began tapping into their creatve side for the first time in a long time, I refused to access mine and chose to rest from it and began doing something I used to love. All of the other times I had ever painted in abstraction, I really was never able to curve any lines. I just could not! Although I certainly can appreciate pieces created by other artists with all types of shapes and curves. For me though, the curved lines and designs felt forced and weird, and I always threw away anything I painted with curvy lines. This time was different. As an artist, I have never sat down to paint with a plan, and I have also never drawn or sketched first. With oils it just was not necessary and with watercolors the sketching is visible underneath light colors. I always viewed it as cheating for me. But for some reason, this night it felt right. I got out the only sketch pencil I could find in my studio which happens to have a brush on one end. It was a souvenir from a famous museum I adore. I used that pencil to begin to draw out curvey lines which completely shocked me. I added color, of course, but as you can see in the first picture below I had to add some elelments of my old style in the mix. At first, It felt essential. I have added pictures below to highlight the elements of the old style I included and some more of the first pieces I did in the new style.

Below are the first four larger pieces I created in the new style.

The next piece was the fifth piece I created that kept pulling me back to the older style. It is wild and busy and full of color. I think it really represents the merging of the two styles. It is interesting to me how much attention it has gotten. and it was the third piece in the new series that is already sold.

I have continued to love the new style. I’ve painted and painted.

On the next blog I will be explaining all about the meaning behind the new style.