Exploration and Intention

In observing this painting process over two weeks, it was interesting to see how the artist explored so many different techniques the first week and created such an interesting abstract composition. By my observation, the whole thing seemed to evolve and grow as she went along. In contrast, her second week painting seemed much more planned from the beginning and I thought it was interesting she incorporated many of her mark making tools and experiments from the week before into this painting. Below are the artists' comments on her process.
I wanted to make an abstract picture with a bunch of shapes.

I was trying out different techniques using different brushes.

I wanted to make craters in a thick layer of paint. I blew on it to achieve this.

I got a bigger brush and decided to make thicker lines.

Kathryn wanted us to fill in as many spaces between the lines and shapes so I began to do that.

My picture turned out more colorful than I had expected at the beginning.

When my dad saw the picture, he held it upside down and thought I had made colorful trees. I didn't realize that my stalactites could also be seen as trees.

Sunflower picture: When I started this picture I was thinking about how our sunflowers in our garden were not growing. I knew what I wanted it to look like before I painted it. It was not an experiment. I had a plan in my head.



I used some of the same brushes from my first picture and I especially liked the small brush and the big, thick brush (looks like a BBQ brush that you would put sauce on the grill). I mixed fewer colors than the first time because I wanted to use less colors.

I like the way it came out because the sunflower is the main idea and pops out of the picture without you focusing on the smaller background details.

Asking the artist to comment on her process provided an opportunity for us to learn more about her intentions and ideas. Prior to reading her comments I had forgotten about the conversation about stalactites as she was exploring dripping paint in the first picture and had not know the motivation for her very purposeful sunflower picture. The story of the creative process and the stories that motivate it enrich the viewing of the picture.