Fledgeling

While writing about the process of painting I thought about 'Fledgeling', a surrealistic painting I did last year purely from inspiration. The painting started as a blank paper as all paintings do, and I just sort of let the brush do all the work. In the finished work a fledgeling bird stands on a rocky outcrop trying to flap it's tiny wings. In the distance a storm horizon and rough looking terrain awaits. I particularly love the way the colours in the sky came out, the contrasting red and greens make the clouds really alive and electric.

When I say the brush did all the work, of course it is not true; I have many brushes lying around my painting table and they never get up and do a painting on their own. The idea is that I do a kind of 'free association'....I knew this term from a form of creative writing where you simply let the words flow out without restraint. The difference between painting (watercolour in particular) and writing is that you can always go back and change your words on a word processor, but you sure can't change the painting very much! I suppose I developed the 'free association' painting method by doodling during my seemingly endless schooling in highschool and university (and now in frequent meetings). At any rate, the method is not for everyone, many artists prefer to think and plan alot, although I always felt that too much logicical thinking puts the creative part of your brain to sleep. Degas the great French painter claims to have painted purely from logical planning and not from creativity, and the results are certainly fantastic, so it all just depends on what type of artists you are.

5x11" cold press, 2008