The wonderful challenge of painting is knowing how an artist can recover (recoup) a seemingly dying painting. It is bringing it to life after deliberately tossing it out as garbage. The challenge also is recalling all past knowledge and wisdom, bringing it to the surface and applying it.
There is a lot of passion in being an artist. I have told my ten students, who I have periodically taught, how you live your life is a work of art.
Beauty and life can spring even in death. I began this painting after the deaths of a very, very loving mother-in-law, Mildred Swanson, and an equally loving nephew, Gordon Nashalook. It was my sister Linda who commissioned my very first original and Paul my father-in-law, who encouraged me to pursue my passion.
I love texture and creating it.
Using a Canson Montval 140 lb. rough watercolor paper I poured medium-valued colors, beginning with yellow. Certain colors dry flat, others rough on this paper. Not liking the result, I gave the paper a shower and brushed off the paint. I then rolled up the damp paper on all four corners and stapled it flat to the gator board. The result is the cracked paint look.
After the brushed-off, showered initial pour I saw the moon shape. After almost tossing the painting the second time I erased paint from the window scene. I repainted that scene and used a colored pencil for added texture. It is this adding and subtracting of paint that can be fun.
"Always know where your light source is coming from," artists are told. There are two light sources and I allowed the candlelight to dominate. There was a third yellow circle that I used to form the aura of the candlelight.
The matching cobalt blue bowl of salmon berries and cup will probably become a trademark of some of my paintings.
Joanne Swanson
