Moving With The Paint
And a shop update!
The book title, “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.” by Jack Kornfield, pops into my head a lot when I am transitioning from one thing to another. Today I was prepping art for the website, and while cutting the mats (which involves math and precision) the phrase kept me company.
It isn’t that I dislike matte cutting. In truth, the more I do it the more I enjoy it. However, it is NOT painting. When my brush hits the paper I often go into a creative trance and am enthralled by color and movement. Pigment touches pigment and magical forms take shape. What started as a blank page becomes a majestic mountain with a galaxy sky, or a moody ocean with waves crashing on a rocky coast, or a curious cat staring at the moon.
Painting is also a space where I can break any rule I want and no one gets to correct me. That is freedom. Being creative means exploration and flexibility. And part of the magic in watercolor is learning to work with the process and not control it. When I paint I have found that the less planning I do the more I enjoy the final results.
Last month I ordered a dot card (a small sample) of Tonic watercolor paints. I decided to paint some mini landscapes to see how I liked the colors. What a trip! I loved the results. The colors were vibrant, they mixed well, and were really smooth. The paints are sold through St. Louis Art Supply. I think they might be ramping up, so the paint may not always be available, but the dot cards are inexpensive and were available when I looked today.
One of the little landscapes I painted was really popular with my subscribers, and unexpectedly was highlighted in the recent Substack Reads. What an honor, and an excellent way to launch into the New Year!
Click here to see the new releases on my website.
Shop Update
Just launched today, “Moon Tree” and eight small watercolor landscapes. Over the next few weeks I am finishing up a series of paper whites (flowers) mixed media paintings and anticipate having them available at the end of January.
Click here to see my newest paintings over at klrockwell.com!
Thank you to everyone that has been following my creative journey and supporting my art.
This is so cool to see your work flourishing. Thanks too for writing about the process of cutting the mattes. I find it hard to attend to that next-stage of presentation and always just want to paint.
I love all of these, but moon tree is absolutely stunning!