A Joyful Journey
Sent: 7/1/2020 5:36:55 AM

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A Joyful Journey

When I switched from realism to abstract in 2015, I did so because painting in a realistic style no longer excited or challenged me. I knew I needed to get outside my comfort zone to grow artistically. Abstract seemed to be the answer.

That started me on a journey that led me down many paths. Some better than others, but all worthwhile learning experiences. I've had moments of excitement and discovery and moments of frustration. I'm still finding my signature style, but I am excited about how far I've come.

The last few weeks, however, I've had a bit more trouble moving forward, I've felt stuck and not as motivated as usual.

Then along came Louise Fletcher and her marvelous "Find Your Joy" taster course. Finding new joy through my art was exactly what I needed, so I signed up for the course. It started on June 15th and ended on June 23rd.

I can't believe how much Louise helped me in one short week! She had a way of "getting me out of my own way" - which is one of my biggest stumbling blocks - and getting me to just play.

There were four exercises during that week. She emphasized that we are NOT trying to do final, finished paintings or even pretty paintings. In fact, one to the exercises was, "You must paint a really ugly painting."

I am going to swallow my pride a bit (Yikes!) and show you a few of the pieces I did during the course.

These first two are from lesson one.

We had to tape off a piece of paper into four or six sections, ignore the tape and paint the entire paper with quick, random brush strokes and marks for no longer than 30 minutes. Then pull up the tape to see what our mini-abstracts looked like. Although not great, I must say, I didn't hate them.

Lesson two had two parts:

First part - create a painting using tools you don't usually use with three colors you rarely use. Along with these three colors, we were also allowed to use black and white.

For my tools, I picked a brayer, a palette knife, and a white acrylic pen. My colors were Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Raw Umber - all colors I rarely ever use. I gave myself an hour to complete the lesson.

The final painting was okay (still not a fan of those colors) but my big discovery was I loved the blending effects I got with the brayer.

Second part: Make a second painting closer to your usual style and preferred colors. Take something you discovered from the first painting and apply it to the second painting.

I normally paint on a fairly large scale, so I taped a big piece of paper (48" x 36") to a canvas. I didn't bother putting gesso on the paper, because I wasn't expecting much. My big discovery from the first painting was using the brayer. For this one, I decided to use something similar - large foam rollers.

Here are photos showing a few of the steps.

The rollers gave me some
awesome effects.

In this step, I added white using a Catalyst wedge.

Next, I added Red Iron Oxide
and more white.

This is where I ended the lesson. I had so much fun! I wasn't expecting anything of myself. Just playing.

Several other lessons followed which I completed.

But, I was having so much fun with what I had done in lesson two, I decided to keep going.

A Joyful Journey

I continued adding colors, bits of fiber paper, scraps of old letters, and more layers and glazes. Again, just playing.

I felt a freedom in creating this I seldom feel when painting. Of course, what else could I name it but "A Joyful Journey."

We all, at some point, lose our sense of play. We think that play is for children. As adults, we think we must always achieve results, be a success, reach a goal. How sad. How wrong we are.

It is my hope that we all can make life a more joyful journey by relearning the importance of play.

Artfully your,

Debbie Bzdyl

PS. As a result of this wonderful course, I hope my paintings will be looser, freer, more relaxed, more fun!

As Pablo Picasso said, "All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up."

That, my friends, is the importance of play.

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