"Teacup and Lemon on Red Silk"
This week’s featured painting is “Teacup and Lemon on Red Silk” from 2020. It is done with oil on panel, and measures 5 x 5 inches.
Inspiration.
Those rare and happy moments where you get that moment of clarity about something… or you suddenly see a new way forward… or you even realize that something you were doing wasn’t truly you, and it’s time to set it aside.
I call this Big Inspiration… and it’s really more about overall direction… in a way they’re often just insights about my own artistic character. Maybe even signposts guiding my progress along the path.
Making each individual painting is guided by something else entirely.
Let’s call it Small Inspiration… all of the tiny little decisions that go into making a work of art.
More the apple a little to the right. Find a different piece of fabric that matches better. Paint the shadow a little bit lighter. Put some texture into the highlight.
Tiny little decisions and judgements… one after the other… always asking “is this better than that?”… often barely at the level of conscious thought… and just doing the work, and doing the work, and doing the work.
When it’s happening right, all those little decisions seem to happen by themselves, and it’s almost like a meditation.
That’s the kind of inspiration out of which paintings are actually born.
The beautiful part is, you can sort of making it happen… just by settling down and getting to work.
Canvas prints of this painting are available. To see more, click the blue button below.