On Being an Artist [Since Forever]

Since Forever, 2015

Quick. Guess what medium this is. Encaustics? Oil/Wax? Acrylics?

If you read my earlier posts, you'll know that I didn't begin to dip my toes in acrylics until 2016. So yes, this is an oil/wax painting.

And although I spent only a year painting in oil/wax, I had taken to it so quickly. I felt like I had been doing it since forever. Little did I know that I would leave it all behind.

Today, I have been painting with acrylics for nearly a year.

And truth be told, I took to it just as readily as I did the previous mediums, including encaustics in 2012.

With the need to fill wall space at art festivals and a few galleries, I painted like a madwoman, so that speeded up my learning.

Now, it feels like I have been painting in acrylics since forever. 

I'm happy that I switched mediums for health reasons, and for anyone on the outside, I hope the switch appeared seamless.

In my creative journey, regardless of medium – digital graphic arts, encaustics, oil/wax, acrylics – the common thread in my artistic expression is a love for "negative space" evident in the vast skies and oceans, and colors that are anything but primary. I like painting in layers and animating the surface with various tools. 

I like acrylics a lot. For now.

I may alter my medium again, or my style, but some things will never change: quiet paintings that can be enjoyed closeup yet move you from afar. Ones enlivened with little nuggets of interest, splatters, and scratches; paintings at first serene yet capable of unfolding with new surprises for years to come.

It's been my artistic expression, why, since forever!

[August, 2020 Update]
Ah, well, even with the best-laid plans, life came unhinged for me last spring, and I didn't have enough time to get to a comfort level with acrylics on large canvases. And with deadlines looming for art shows, I fell back on my tried and true medium, oil/cold wax medium. Now, I also make mosaic mirrors, but that's another ball of wax altogether. 😜