Left Behind

SOLD
"Left Behind", 12x16, oil on canvas panel (Please click on picture for better detail)

Some people have told me that I paint like a millionaire because I use tons of paint on most paintings. Truth is that palette knife work requires the use of a great deal more paint than does painting with just brushes and medium. In these difficult economic times, I have become increasingly aware of how costly my paintings have become to produce, and although I have experimented with using brushes in lieu of the palette knife, I've come to the conclusion that for me the excitement of creating passages of extreme texture within a painting still out weigh the cost restrictions that they impose. (Just don't tell my husband that I said that when he sees that I charged a $60 tube of cobalt violet on his credit card!)

Lately, I have begun the habit of saving leftover paint at the end of a painting session. I gob the color together with my palette knife and swish it all together, sometimes creating mud but oftentimes creating gorgeous grays. Then I smush it over a brand new canvas and start playing with my 'mud". The painting above was a mishmash of gobs of paint left over from the past two weeks' serious painting sessions, and spread like icing over a new canvas in a haphazard "left behind" format.

Yesterday, I looked at the mess I'd created (be glad you didn't see it, too!) and decided to try to make something of the mess. Thus "Left Behind" was produced. As the purple vase began to take shape, I knew that I had to do something with the thick impasto in the lower left hand side of the painting. Thus , the impasto became a discarded, or "left behind" sunflower. The rest of the painting came together quickly after that, once the concept had been created. I left interesting passages of original texture here and there within the floral arrangement, just because I liked them. This painting is a conglomerate of color and texture, without rhyme or reason, so please don't expect perfection on symmetry.

Full of texture and surprise passages, this was a fun piece to do!