Smoosh

I went to my "Intro to Drawing and Painting" class yesterday. The topic was "monochrome". First we did some colour mixing exercises to develop a range from darkest to lightest. Then we were asked to paint "anything" using only that range. It was at that point that I realised I've never really done any painting before. When the teacher gently critiqued my work by saying it looked as though I was trying to draw with a paint brush, I was stumped. I didn't know there was an alternative. She demonstrated. Honestly it looked as though she was moulding something huge out of soft clay! She told me to push and smoosh the paint around on the paper. She used big globs of paint and a wadded up rag to apply it. I was amazed.

Instead of going back to my "pretty flower", I had a go at pushing and smooshing the paint. I was still quite tentative, but at least I could see there was something different I could do.


















Actually I feel as though I'm doing remedial kindergarten painting. I don't know if that's a good thing. The whole process of working to develop my skills for textile art keeps getting broader with more and more possibilities and processes. Now there's paint and learning to smoosh!