Open Door:Close Door...

The Red Guitar   watercolor/gouache   29 x 20

I am always getting in trouble at my house for leaving doors open....cupboard doors, closet doors and pantry doors. I am making an effort to remedy this as it is terribly bothersome to my husband. I am not sure why I do this, but the notion of an open door (as opposed to a closed door) is very appealing to me. (OK, I really do know why, but choose not to share). Possibilities....things yet to be....things left undone. And so it follows that I also like that "open door notion" in the way I work. If I have already tried it, I would like to do it another way the second time around. When I painted "The Red Guitar", I was pushing the capabilities of watercolor - working large and aggressively and, at the same time, disregarding the quiet and passive qualities for which watercolor is known. The sublime. I have since moved on to other things. That being said, I still kind of admire the gusto in this painting....worked from a model on an easel with big brushes....very few quiet passages. The raw white passages of the paper left undone....my trademark. The open doors. Finding a compromise between open doors and closed doors.