underpaintings.

You might be able to tell from my last artsy post that I am cluttered with ideas and thoughts about my artistic endeavors. And although I am grateful not to be bored, sometimes the constant flurry of stuff swirling around in my head is overwhelming.
So, I spent my studio time this week making under-paintings. Alex makes me these wonderful wooden 1.5" deep boxes to paint on. I often will cover the edges and top with a collage of simple papers and paint. This is the foundation of my paintings. The simplicity and craft of collaging papers, and using glue, and painting washes of acrylic and ink~ maybe a small pencil stroke... it is like a meditation to me. It is a nice "job" to do when I am too wound up to make sense to myself.

Later, the paintings unfold in different ways. Sometimes I create an under-painting with a specific pattern or image that will work into it. Most of the time however, it is the under-painting itself that asks to be a certain image.

These are 12" square to give you an idea of the size:sometimes I finish a painting and think to myself, hmmm... I liked the under-painting equally as much...