Oil on board progress shot.

I'm a slow working painter, partly because I work wet into wet and then let a piece dry for months sometimes (oil paints are my preferred medium), partly because I wait for the story line to surface and feel no need to rush as I paint for myself and not a deadline.

For me, painting in particular, is about letting go completely to the right brain. I do not use any of the painting tricks I learned at university to get precision -- no graphing, no projectors, not tracing, no vis-à-vis; everything is by eye and feeling. I'm actually not inspired by too much realism, especially photo-realism and could pontificate upon that subject for hours but I won't now. That being said, I do appreciate the techniques mentioned and certainly had to learn them to get through all those art classes. What I learned is that I must not judge my reality on an idea of perfection, especially in my creative life. I respect all people that get creative as I think that is part of the bigger picture in life and exploring what's going on (the deeper layers of self).

This is a crazy piece I've been working on for quite some time, it's morphed many times but is finally coming together. I was in a very dark place when I started this (the end of a deeply passionate relationship) and am not as I finish it... this is part of the reason I take so long to produce paintings, I think the "vibe" thickens with time and the flowing of emotional energy, it becomes more complex and interesting, more of a true abstraction of condensed mana.

*Above is a detail shot.

*Above is a shot for scale as this is a large board. You can also see many other paintings in the "work in progress" phase.

I hope you find ways of expression, ways of not judging yourself... ways of letting go!