Experimentation and trust always pay off
A new abstract landscape series is underway, hooray!
‘12 Moons in a Pink Sky’, ©Kris Cahill 2023, paint journal, acrylic on paper
There is joy in finding a new direction in my work.
I’ve spent the past 6 months working on my painting practice, doing my best to trust, and to allow the new imagery to show up. It won’t show up if I don’t, and so I have a regular painting practice.
This includes working in my paint journals, which have been supremely rewarding in terms of what I’m learning. Part of my practice is self education - listening to artist’s podcasts, reading, and watching art videos to expand my knowledge of tools and techniques. Most of my practice is practical; playing with paint, mixing colors and (hardest of all) stepping away from trying too hard, over thinking, and judging the work before it has a chance to breathe.
One of my favorite things about the paint journals is that all of the work I’m doing is neatly bound in a book. It’s really hard to rip out a painting if I hate it, so I am forced to continue to work on it, or move on from it. The point is to allow myself to make the work that isn’t beautiful, to allow for big errors, and hardest of all - to completely paint over something that does not work. Create and destroy!
My commitment to working in my paint journals is helping me become more patient with the process of building new imagery for myself.
Another bonus to working in a journal is to see the ideas that show up near each other, as I continue to play with paint. ‘12 Moons in a Pink Sky’ is the most recent piece, showing up after several others I really like that are all now bound together in one book.
The next step is to start transferring these ideas to larger surfaces, boards and canvas. They’ll never look exactly the same, because no two pieces will ever be the same. But they are a good starting point, my version of sketching.
My new series is showing up as landscapes.
I’ve painted a lot of landscapes in the past, all of them abstract. Sometimes they have trees or flowers, sometimes just hills, colors, and sky. I’ve loved working with imagery from places I’ve been, places I’ve just seen photos of, and places I’ve imagined.
The new imagery that’s showing up, while inspired by the earth, is different. It’s showing up in a new way for me this time. First of all, my materials are a bit different - most of my past landscapes were acrylic on vinyl. I’m still using acrylic paint, and sometimes pencils and crayons, but no longer working on vinyl. Paper, board, and canvas are my surfaces now.
Here’s one of my older landscapes:
‘The Listeners’ ©Kris Cahill 2004. acrylic on vinyl. Sold
‘The Listeners’ is from a series of flower field paintings I created in my early years of producing a lot of paintings, back when I lived in Chicago. All of the pieces I created between 1990 - 2009 were acrylic paint on vinyl. When I stepped away from painting, I left that old way of working behind. I’m also done making paintings like this one. I loved it then, learned a lot from it, but have moved on.
These new paintings I’m finding for myself have a richness, a depth, lots of layers.
‘Golden Canyon’ ©Kris Cahill 2023, paint journal, acrylic on paper
As I wrote in this post, breaking my right wrist last October actually helped me find a new style for myself. It wasn’t easy to hold a paintbrush in my left hand, so I applied paint with all kinds of objects a lot more than I usually do.
One of the main tools for ‘Golden Canyon’ was a small (2” x 3”) piece of scrap chipboard I used as a brush. The handles of paintbrushes are great scrapers, revealing layers of color beneath the top layer. Paint rags are so satisfying to work with, creating blurred and softened edges. Toilet paper tubes and packing cardboard with textured sides can be dipped in paint and stamped. The possibilites for creative mark making are endless.
I am becoming more adept at working with layers of paint, and learning how to use transparent and opaque pigments together. It’s really satisfying to find a new way to create a color.
The underlying mood and emotional impact is what I’m after.
‘Turquoise Raindrops’ ©Kris Cahill 2023, paint journal, acrylic on paper
It’s the depth, both on the surface of the piece, and emotionally, that interests me. I’ve got to feel something for this piece to work for me. It needs a richness and beauty, lots of texture without becoming too scattered or busy.
‘Pink and Green Landscape’ ©2023 Kris Cahill, acrylic on paper, paint journal
The paintings in my journals are a necessary ingredient in what happens next in terms of making the new paintings. I’ve prepped two surfaces I’ll start working on this week, and will certainly keep you posted as they develop!
I wrote about this piece last week, and am officially counting it as the first piece in this new abstract landscapes series.
