I have recently gone through the lot of my old paintings and have pulled many out that are suited to be rebooted, so to speak. I have begun a new painting altogether on some of the old pieces. A number of these are vertical, or orientated in the portrait position. I rarely paint those these days. I have been focusing on the landscape in both surrealist compositions and full on abstractions. I am comfortable with the landscape orientation.
So I decided to keep a number of these pieces to be restarted in the portrait orientation, challenging myself to see what I can do since I last worked on pieces the long way. So far I am finding my way, not altering the method so much as trying to make it work for these pieces. I am getting pretty interested in where these can go.
I am inspired by the students in my Painting workshop, who are finding ways beyond their comfort zones. Each of them has challenged themselves to do something different than they might normally do and all have gone even further than that. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share the energy of Art, the give and take, with others and learn so much from them.