Intuitive Painting

This week I started an "Intuitive Painting" project, inspired by intuitive painters Flora Bowley and Tracy Verdugo.  "Intuitive" painting is a creative process in which we let our intuition drive the creation, with no preconceived agenda other than to let go have fun with it.  This project is based on an exercise in Bowley's book, Creative Revolution.  The task is to build layers, each layer covering up 80% of the previous layer.  I found this very challenging, as I love detail, and found it hard to cover it up!  But I also found the exercise liberating, as I began to feel what she talks about in her book - that covering over introduces the opportunity for something new.  I had to push myself through this, struggling against obliterating beauty I'd just created.  But in the end there was more beauty, in a way I couldn't have imagined.

Before covering up each heavily detailed layer, I photographed several 5x5" areas to capture little compositions, each appealing in its own right.  Click here to see more!

Three phases of layers, the exact same painting