New Painting: The Valley of O

"The Valley of O" Oil on canvas 12" x 12" © 2012 Marilyn Fenn
“The Valley of O” Oil on canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2012 Marilyn Fenn

It’s kind of amazing to me what can happen in the studio of an abstract painter.   If you let the painting talk to you, you can discover what it wants to be.

I started working on this canvas last fall.  Then, I was just doodling around on it, trying out different brushstrokes and experimenting with techniques.  I achieved some very cool results, but not what I would call a painting, as all the little parts didn’t hang together.

I started working on it again the other night. I kept trying to add loops in the big space; I painted them in and then out again at least half a dozen times.  I was planning to repaint the entire surface, even though there were bits from the previous work on it that I hated to lose.  I painted over most of those bits more than once and then wiped it out again.

I wasn’t planning for the palette to come out like this, either.   But painting this way is one stroke and then the next, and then a response to that and then another, until you end up with something that does hang together.

This is yet another work that is a bit different for me, both in composition and color palette…and I must say, I really, really like it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.