Colors

So often while I am at an art walk or doing a show I am told, "You must be so brave to paint like that." I am never sure if that is a compliment or not. I rather doubt it. The truth is I'm not brave at all. I am simply painting as I see it.

Ever since I can remember, when the lights go out at night, I see colors swirling through the darkness taking on all sorts of shapes. They then blend back into the swirling colors only to take on new shapes. Everything I look at has these bright and vivid colors swirling through it. I dream in color. Never do I dream in black and white, and for me, I can't even imagine that anybody does.

I'm not sure why I see things the way I do, and I never ask or try to figure it out. I simply accept it and I paint it. I usually start off with a sketch that is in black and white. I have sketched since I was eight or nine years old. I love to work with the pencil and explore all the ways to create texture, depth, contrast, and values. I then stand my notebook up somewhere, and I look at it over several days or months. I let it seep into my subconscious or my Spirit I guess, and then when it is ready, the subject lets me know.

I then go up to the studio and start working. I never choose the colors. They choose themselves. I rarely even think during the process...it is very instinctual and comes from another place that my mind is not allowed to go to. I am usually as surprised as anyone else by the finished result.

You can call me brave...I know what you mean..."Yikes!" I'm nothing of the sort though. I am simply painting how I see it and feel it.