Opening
16 x 20
acrylic on board
© Nicki Ault, 2014
Yesterday I spent the entire day experimenting at the studio. I have been wanting to play with my paints for a long time now, but there have been other priorities. There was also the small detail of a major case of the blues. I'll be honest- the wind was knocked out of my sails and it wasn't pretty. It was tough to get out of bed most days from about December to March. Why? I don't know- it was everything and it was nothing. Winter on the prairies, it's a love-hate relationship. I turned a bit of a corner last month and this month has been even better. I now feel like tapping into some of those emotions to see what might come out.
I went in with no expectations. No plans. No subjects. No reference materials. Just me and my paints. It was good. This painting morphed big-time throughout the day. I switched back and forth between two paintings, but spent more time on this one. It had a definite floral feel at the start, but I didn't want it to look like anything so I began eliminating, painting over and editing. The goal was for it to not look like anything, but when viewing it with fresh eyes on the camera screen, I realized it did look like something. It reminded me of my friend Kim Rempel's abstracts!!! What?! I must have been channeling my inner Rempel because her influence is all over this baby! Over the last year I have been telling her that she has been an inspiration to me because of her no-holds-barred experimental nature. Little did I know the extent of the inspiration.
The title "Opening" comes from the notion that I am trying to open my mind to new ways of painting- both by experimenting with abandon and also by gearing up to try painting more classically (hence the Bargues). I'm all over the place, but you only live once and now that I actually feel like I am among the living I am opening myself up to the possibilities.
