Fire and Ice - The Pandemic and the Painting Process

 

The months between March of 2020 and 2021 have indeed been strange.  I rent a studio space above a wine bar in our town of York, PA.  In mid-March of 2020 everything shut down.  Restaurants were closed.  We were told to stay in lockdown.  This is a painting I completed just prior to that lockdown.  I named it Fire and Ice.  It was the only snowstorm of the winter that ended in March 2020. 

Prior to the lockdown I felt that I was on a roll with my painting.  I tried a new palette.  I was painting large and expressionistic landscapes and loving it.  A year later, I find I'm in a bit of a slump.  This post is an attempt to assess this slump.  

When I learned that lockdown was inevitable, I packed up most of my painting materials and took them home.  I thought the lockdown would last a few weeks, not several months.  I tried painting in my daughter's old bedroom, but my husband was working from home on Zoom meetings all day.  I ended up setting up a studio at my neighbor's empty house.  This worked for a while.  

In the summer I was able to get into the studio again, but noticed I had several unfinished large paintings that were started pre-pandemic and never finished.  I was teaching an on-line college class and was pretty busy with that.  All of my studio classes at local art center were cancelled. In the fall I started teaching a landscape painting class via Zoom. 

For my demo paintings I purchased a bunch of 16x20 canvases from Michaels.  Six canvases for $10.99.  Teaching the basics of landscape painting, I was focusing on painting to help my students.  I produced 6-10 "finished" pieces and felt "at least I'm painting.  The paintings are all decently well executed paintings but I didn't "love" most of them.  

I continued to teach in January at two different Art Centers.  I continued the Landscape Painting with five students in the classroom and four on Zoom.  I started a beginners oil painting class in nearby Gettysburg.  I loved both classes.  I did notice that the biggest issue with adult students is that they get too precious with their work.  They tend to get tight and "tickle" their paintings to death.  I  decided to do a Painting without a Brush session in both classes to help them loosen up.  As a result, I realized my demo paintings were getting a little tight as well.  I created a bunch of small brushless paintings using spatulas, knives, credit cards etc. (See previous post).

Well, I got a little bored of those too.  When I went back into my studio this week, I took a look at my paintings started pre-pandemic and it dawned on me.  Last year I was painting for the joy of the painting process.  Over the months, I lost it somewhat.  Perhaps I am more aware of time and limitations.  Thinking about sales (which I never want to be my focus).  Covid has made things like studio time and teaching time unpredictable.  The restaurant closed again in December through the beginning of February.  February was a blur of snow. Life can get in the way.  Covid has been a huge wet blanket.  

Thursday I decided I was just going to paint what I wanted to paint.  For the first time in a long time, I went in to the studio to do just that.  Hopefully this will be a start to a better year.  

Painting Without a Brush

So during the usual rush before Christmas, I decided to paint a number of small paintings.  In 2019 I sold several of these mini paintings.  I thought I could try painting with acrylics so that they would dry quickly.  I quickly realized that I did not like painting mini landscapes with acrylics.  

For a change I decided to "Paint without a brush".  I had acquired a number of tools...palette knives, spatulas, trowels.  In addition to the purchased tools I knew that I could cut up old credit cards, cardboard and other assorted items to make interesting "marks"

Here is my first attempt.  I am pretty happy with it  It is only an 8"x10" painting which I can price rather inexpensively and also ship out in a priority mail box.  I have started several others, but most are not quite "finished".  I have a studio in downtown York above a restaurant.  The restaurant closed in mid-December due to Covid spikes, so I haven't gotten there very much.  So much for the pre-Christmas sales!

What I did do was introduce this method to my landscape painting class.  I teach at a local art association to adults.  The class was a success.  Most of my students loosened up quite a bit and felt successful. Since I started this method of painting I feel that I prefer it to the traditional brush method.  I am looser and not as nitpicky!