“What is creative living? Any life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic.

I have a healthy mix of both curiosity and fear insofar as art is concerned and thankfully, curiosity is far stronger than fear.

Curiosity is a good thing to have. It pushes me to go further, to ask, what if I do this? These questions always lead to more learning ( a continuous process) and surprising discoveries. Without the questions, stagnation sets in.

So with a little of both curiosity and maybe a touch of trepidation, I am ready to tackle the second of my biggest canvases which has been sitting in a corner of my art room for several months.

This canvas is going to add a pop of colour on one of the many bare walls in my house. If I am successful with this experiment.

modeling paste and acrylic paint

I give a base coat of colour to a 15x30 canvas pre-primed with gesso and let it dry.

first stencil on wood panel

My first idea is to simply add colours and drips above the horizon line and then paint over these to suggest abstract flowers.

But then I have the what ifs running through my brain…what if I create some texture with a stencil to suggest the background?

textured pattern on canvas in acrylic mixed with modeling paste

Now that I have the pattern across the canvas and the texture is showing up nicely, I am curious to find out …

– what if I painted flowers in between the patterns?
– what if I used texture the same colour as the background?

I don’t like the idea of the flowers going all the way up the canvas so I scotch that idea.

If I use the same colour of background in between the green patterns, I will not be unifying the background.

What if I use green texture to suggest leaves in between the branches?

As I am looking at the canvas, I am thinking it needs something more to tie the branches and the leaves together, maybe a spritz of sepia ink? Hmmm…not sure.

The fear is just settling. I could ruin everything in a jiffy but then what if I discovered something wonderful?

If I mess it up, I can always sand everything off and start over right?

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