Practice Pieces #1

app. 40"x30"

charcoal and pastel on newsprint

NFS

A number of things have came up lately showing me that I need to explore some different ways of doing what I do.  I love the little paintings, but also feel quite constrained by them.  I often feel like the time I spend on them could be better spent working on larger pieces that I could have more freedom with.  I have been needing and wanting to play more with my artwork.  I like working with the figure.  I like the "slice-of-life" subject matter.  I've spent the last few years looking at other artists work that I really admire and trying to learn what they do with their figurative paintings.  I am now trying to figure out how to branch out to see how I interpret the subjects, what comes natural to me.  So, today, I got out newsprint and taped it together until I got a sheet that was as big as I wanted to work with, some charcoal and pastels and looked at my collection of photos and just started drawing from them.  I hope to make more time for practice like this, time for working without the expectation of a saleable piece.