Project 3: Bird Painting

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Materials:

• Canvas board
• Found/recycled objects
• Acrylic paint

This painting is for a friend of mine. It was created through many alternative techniques; I finger painted, smeared, sprayed, dripped, poured, and sponged, only using a limited amount of brushwork. There's a feather embedded in the paint as well as some glitter. I still have to seal it, though – all I have is satin finish fixative and I want this to be matte.

A little back story on me and painting:
For most of my life, I took art classes – drawing, painting, sculpting, whatever. I find the techniques I weren't taught the most satisfying, however; there's just something gratifyingly visceral about dipping your fingers right in the medium and following your instinct rather than planning something. I find painting realistic pictures boring. Any artist who has been through as much training as I have can manage that; I take my joy from unrestrained creative activity rather than the product.

It's usually how I work, in any case. My original ideas for paintings are always much different then the final work; my thoughts are always evolving. The process of creation defines the outcome rather than a preconceived plan. I always use tons of paint; this piece took so long because there are so many layers of paint I had to let dry. I like seeing a piece evolve layer by layer, but I also like experimenting. Sometimes I take risks, try techniques that don't work, so I just have to deal with my mistakes in the next layer. I barely ever feel like a piece is "ruined", it's just going in a new direction.

I take the same sort of joy from painting that kids do. Children don't care about whether they are "good" painters, they just have fun doing it! Why shouldn't we be the same way?