I'M LOOSE!

Finally, something for me to yahoo about!

Lately, my painting has left me frustrated and doing more than my share of kvetching. Creating anything worth keeping was impossible. (That, in itself, told me I needed a vacation.)

Before I left for Chicago, I decided to try an entirely new~to me, anyway~technique. It involves using very watered down watercolor paints on a material called Yupo paper. Yupo is not really paper at all. It is a plastic sheet. It does not warp or buckle, and there is no need to prepare it before applying the paint. At an art show, I had seen a very small abstract painting using this particular "paper." I found it unique. And I immediately bought some Yupo to give it a try. Mind you, I had no earthly idea how to use it, but I am always game for experimentation.

Excitedly, I began to paint on this curiously different paper. Ugh. And double ugh. I was appalled at the ugliness I had created. The bonus of Yupo is that with a damp cloth or sponge you can wipe off the paint. I think I wiped off four different hideous paintings. By the time we left for Chicago, sitting on my drafting table was a blank piece of Yupo. I was convinced I was going to have to find a workshop to learn the proper use of it. And I was none too happy.

Maybe my muse was refreshed after the long weekend away, because upon my return I sat down to give the watercolors on Yupo one final try before giving up on it. And the above is what I created. Yay for me! I got loose! Loose, I tell ya! I have always wanted to quit being such a tight, precise painter. Looseness I wanted, and looseness I got.

I am very pleased with these tulips. I will even matte and frame this painting. ::gasp:: To the majority of people, this might look like a mess not worthy of framing. But to me, it gives me hope that I can express myself in a multitude of ways using various mediums.

Did I mention I got loose? ::grin::

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." ~Oscar Wilde