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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Stepping out of the Comfort Zone

Eclipsed   oil/canvas   24 x 8 x .5
"The jazz in life is not found in the comfort zone". Wow, do I love this quote! As we muddle through our days, we find comfort in always sitting in the same chair, taking the same route to the grocery, and so on and so on. I think that this saves our energy and that is good. I wear my bib overalls every day to paint.....I like saving my creativity for the canvas. It is only when the status quo consumes every moment of our lives that we become bored and restless. I really do believe that we ought to "shake it up" in the realms that are most interesting to us. "Eclipsed" is such a painting. A few of us painted during the recent lunar eclipse on February 20 on the 3rd floor of a county building in Akron, Ohio. We turned out all of the interior lights and used only LED headbands to paint the nightscape. What a rush! This painting is of The First National Bank Building.....I added the eclipse later, as it was not visible from my viewpoint. As I couldn't see my palette that well, I found that I was much more generous with both the paint and the medium than usual and was pleased with the results. Painting "in the dark" has its benefits. Are there other lessons to be learned here?