Relax
14×11″
Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas
©2014 Lucinda Howe

Do you ever have one of those days when there is too much going on in your mind and you just need to relax?   After a weekend of navigating South Carolina’s tax-free weekend to buy a computer, migrating data, reconfiguring the old one, and tweaking the new one, I didn’t have much problem solving capacity left.  Then I still had to do my usual weekend chores.  If I had another day off from work, I could get all caught up, right?  As if!

So on Sunday afternoon, I wanted to play with paint in the studio.   I looked for something to do that would be relaxing and not too serious.

One of my favorite exercises is to start with a horizontal white line and see what develops above and below it.   In this case, I found a canvas already underpainted with black and blue, and I wanted to see if I could capture the feel of looking out into the ocean from a quiet tropical beach.  I scraped on textured layers of paint with a palette knife and kept the colors to analogous blues and greens.  The result is quite abstract, but it reminds me of white fluffy clouds and turquoise Caribbean waters.

What about you?   Do you use simple abstract compositions to experiment with colors?  Do you have a favorite way to “play with paint” when you don’t have energy to do a serious painting?