Tamarak's Table: Progressions, Transgressions and Wanderings…

I am finding that this journey I am on with painting is so invigorating…I am having so much fun! The more I paint…the more the ideas come to me…I find that starting small and exploring…pushing my limits and learning has led to a much less scary move into bigger and bigger realms…it seems that if I try something out in a small size…and if I like it and can visualize it larger…then I feel much less hesitation to go big…someone at my vernissage asked if I found big canvases intimidating…and my initial answer was yes...there is more material to handle and the cost goes up quickly…in certain ways, I do think that big is more intimidating…I remember a while back, my elder daughter and I each bought a 30” x 30” canvas...I have now painted 2 that size...but that first one sat there in my studio staring at me, scaring me, for a long time before I got up the nerve to put paint on it…but I am getting better and the process of starting small does help take the edge off!

Except for a few small (2.5” x 3.5”) watercolours, I haven’t been painting since I finished my painting number 21 for the show…that doesn’t mean I am laying fallow or having a vacant spell…it’s just that, after the push to get ready for the show, I was really tired…so in that first week I indulged in naps whenever possible (I was still doing my computer calls as well) and then I had about a week of family visits, which I thoroughly enjoyed…I never seem to get to see my family enough…so, like when my brother was here in the early days of the New Year, I concentrated on the visits…I still have lots of ideas for paintings that I want to do…but they could wait for a bit…

On the way back from taking my Mom to the airport this morning, Cariño and I stopped at Wallack’s and picked up a canvas and some paints…Yvonne likes and wants my Meditation garden…but bigger! So bigger it will become – 24” x 36” canvas with a 1.5” profile…I like the thicker stretched canvases…

It will be interesting to see exactly how much it costs and how much paint it takes to do a big painting…I have never followed closely how much materials, cost and time goes into each painting…not sure if I will be able to log time very well…I am not a very structured person…so remembering to keep track of time is pushing it! Keeping track of materials and cost is going to be enough of a stretch!

So…the empty canvas waits…and even though it is the biggest one so far...I'm excited...but not scared!!!...