I worked on a new still life tonight and the ideas that came to me was the phrase “color of thought“. 

The pink in my painting is, to my way of thinking …..”thinking” and communicating with the pink in the flowerpot.  

Also, the lavenders are making a musical note and playing against the green of the plant leaves.

Found I need to resolve this work by going with pinks and purple in the background. 

That was a deliberate pushing of the colors beyond what was actually in front of me.

Sometimes, I’ve noticed that I can get what I want by just seeing what I believe is in-front of me and rendering it - and other times  what’s there needs something “beyond” …. like colors and shapes that clearly are not “there” - but appear in my imagination.   

I feel OK enough with my own “instinct” to try out a color, to push a painting in a certain direction - if only as an experiment - to see where it will lead.  Also, I’m desperate … I see the painting won’t work without something - and it’s not in front of me - so I need to pull it out of my imagination.

Worse than can happen is I’ll mess up my work - but I’m not afraid of that ..and honestly, it hasn’t usually happened that I’ve messed things up by pushing a painting in a certain direct.  What gets me messed up is when I don’t feel “anything” about what I’m doing - when I don’t have any passion about it, then I think it’s messed up.   But I have a solution for that one - if you don’t feel “something” about what your painting …don’t paint it.  Don’t draw it.     If there’s no emotional response, it’s not worth painting it.

By habit, I don’t chose anything to paint that I don’t already have a feeling about - and usually, I know something about what that feeling is.   I suppose, the painting then, is really about that feeling - and how I work it out - and if I can go beyond the beginning feeling, to something else.

I also looked at all my work over the last 18 months or so, and was overall, satisfied with what I’ve done - All of my work is posted in ArtNewYorkCity.com