Hearts

The other day I was invited to submit a 6" x 6" painting for a fundraising art show. I thought of many things I could do: a small watercolor sketch of a local scene; an impressionistic landscape; an abstract; or some sort of a graphic composition. Having the opportunity to do anything I wanted was both interesting and challenging, as there were no parameters other than size. The exciting part was in the fact that I could do something completely different than what I am used to doing, and that it would be on display for public viewing.

The pieces were to be signed only on the back. Someone buys it only if they like it, not because of the signature. After six failed attempts at doing an abstract watercolor, I decided to try some hearts. I drew a pair of six inch squares on my paper, and masked off the boundaries and drew two hearts with a soft pencil. I painted them boldly, varying the intensity and color, and letting the paint mix right on the paper. I made three glazes, adjusting the color slightly and letting the luminosity of the transparent paint show through.

As soon as I was satisfied with the paint, I accented everything with pastels and colored pencil, scribbling over everything and ignoring the underlying shapes. Finally, I splashed some white and red paint, and labeled them: "Passion".

When I was done I didn't want to give them away, so I painted a few more.