How I created the intuitive painting, “You gave me the world”
I often get asked what my creation process involves, especially for my intuitive paintings where I don’t exactly know what will come of the work. I’m overjoyed that the painting, “You gave me the world” is being published in the beautiful La Raíz Magazine’s 2022 issue, so I thought I’d share how this painting came to be. There are lots of layers to this one; more than a camera can quite capture!
Want to watch a video about this painting instead? Click to the end.
The first stage was all about playful mark-making
I began with a wood panel, sealed and covered in white gesso. The task at hand for this stage is to put anything down, guided only by what draws my attention. I loosely swirled paint on and around the panel, and glued cut outs from magazines that caught my eye. This stage is all about layering up with marks and colors that I enjoy, without any concern to what it looks like.
As you’ll see from the image, this stage is chaotic and messy. Believe it or not, it takes energy and self-awareness to paint in this way. It is important to stay in the zone of play for as long as possible when creating, which is generally counter to what Western society tells us is important. So, with that enculturation, it is tempting to begin resolving a painting too early, especially when I like parts of it. But all of these marks make for greater richness in the finished painting, even if none of these first layers show in the end.
Image 1: This is approximately the 3rd layer.
The birds in our courtyard inspired me
While I painted, the little birds that live in my small courtyard were playing and singing. The animals that live locally here mean so much to me and I feel privileged to share a space with them. I could see them sitting on our fence watching me and each other.
Here, their surrounds are concrete and condos crammed closely together, on a street overcrowded with cars, with the occasional pruned redwood tree to make way for power lines. I love that our courtyard can give these birds a little shade, food and water, but I kept imaging for them a brighter world not so over-developed. I wanted to give them a new world.
Image 2: One of the birds singing in our courtyard
I layered colors to reflect the joy of the new world
I got to work in painting the feelings of the world I was dreaming up. I asked myself what kind of colors would reflect the magic of that world, taking me to the turquoise, purple, green-blues alongside lovely orange, cad yellow colors. I used glazes and petite marks to continue layering, in search of how this new world would emerge.
Image 3: Layering up colors to reflect a particular feeling
I needed to detach from what I was creating
I became so engrossed in dreaming a new world for these birds that I could feel myself getting too attached to the painting. If I get too attached to a painting in these mid-stages, it becomes difficult to move on: my analytical side kicks in and takes over. My analytical superpower is useful nearer to the end of a painting’s creation, not at this stage. So, I decided to make marks that would disrupt my sense of control over the path: I dribbled acrylic inks around the board and once they dried, scraped colours I liked across the panel using a palette knife.
You may have heard artists say that it can be good to wreck an artwork when feeling too attached to it during the creative process. This stage was where I needed to do just that, in my own way.
Image 4: There are probably about 10 layers here now
I returned to see the horizon waiting
In the buzz of colors and marks, I could see hints of misty skies with a glow difficult to distinguish from night or day; a sun so filled with wonder it invoked moonlight; the earth exhaling the imposition of climate change, to breathe in a brand new day. I imprinted where the bird, my friend, could rest and began to articulate what I could see around it.
Image 5: Responding to layers, articulating the emerging form
The sky and the moon called to be the focus
Initially, my focus was upon the bird and what I could give to them. So, I had subconsciously anticipated painting the bird in focus. But when I came to refine the bird, I realized though that this new world required a focus on the fantastical sky and earth that was emerging - not on the bird. A painting needs a focal point, so that all its parts don’t compete.
I decided to keep the bird’s body loose and unrefined, so that we as the viewers could be positioned alongside the bird, regarding this new world together.
Image 6: Learning from the painting what needed to be in focus
All along, it was the birds who had given me the world
This final stage of creating this piece was all about the details that brought the painting together as a whole. I painted to celebrate and honor my relationship with the local birds; and beyond that, our relationship as citizens living on Muwekma Ohlone land with the animals and nature here.
It was in giving these birds a new world, I realised how they have already given me the world, right here where I live.
Image 7: Completed, the layers a history peeking through
I hope you enjoyed the snapshots of this painting’s creation through its multiple layers, and that you’ll see that there are many stages in making art, including chaotic, incoherent stages. It all comes together eventually.
Do you have your own process for creating art or anything else? Do you see similarities or differences between your process and mine? I’d love to know! Please consider commenting below to share.