Day 15. What’s covered up

“Exposed” 8×8, oil on canvas

So many of my paintings this month have involved erasing– often an element that I initially really liked. In writing they call it “killing your darlings.” In today’s painting, I experimented with drips, letting my thinned out paint run down from the wilderness of the figure’s thoughts. Most of those drips eventually got covered up with another layer of paint.

There’s a lot we can’t see that is still part and parcel of what we can see. I think my whole life I’ve tried to see what’s underneath. I’ve looked for meaning in ant hills, in blades of grass. I’ve tried to discern the covered up drips in people’s faces. I don’t know that I’m good at it yet. I just know I can’t stop.

And those yellow flowers? At the celebratory party at the end of last year’s 31 in 31, my friend Marguerite gifted me a yellow orchid in homage to the orchids I’d been watching all month that finally bloomed on day 31. Well, that little plant she gave me last January bloomed again at the start of this one. I knew they’d make it into a painting eventually. It was today. 

All my paintings from the month will be available February 3 at the gallery and online February 6.