Wasn’t sure what I wanted to paint this particular day, just really needed to 😊

I’ve been reading a creativity book, The Adjacent Possible; filled with good ideas, one of which emphasizes “just starting.” A concept the author calls zero to 1, which she explains is like this huge leap, from nothing, to something. She says it over and over, all different ways, and I understood it. First intellectually. Then emotionally. And today, physically.

I’d had some good and some bad starts and pics, as is usual for any artist really, but the day after day of gloomy overcast cold weather – very unusual for her here in Austin – had me in a motivation slump ☺️

But this day, I took her at her word. She’d continued elaborating about “just starting” and it included prep work, etc. Anything that got one starting. Even just barely starting a string of painting to get back to later. Anything. Zero to one 😊

So I did.

Using a new acrylic paste, an inexpensive brand I could “waste” my time on w/out feeling bad, lol! I layered the 1st canvas, working the paste, smoother and smoother each pass. Not something I usually, and starting getting into it. Set it aside to let it dry & picked up a 2nd canvas.

This one I only partially laid in the paste at the top most portion of the canvas, dropped down a bit, and over-lap-layered the rest. Thickly, til I reached bottom ( was that symbolical? 🤷‍♂️ ) and put it aside and picked up the 1st canvas, which by now was fairly dry.

I didn’t know what to do, so I gathered a slightly mix thick glop of paint and paste, and spread them on the middle of the vertical canvas with a palette knife. One swipe across and down each. I liked them, and did dare touch them!

Picked up the over lapping layered canvas with a partial swatch covering at the top, and – watering the paint down, mixing watercolor ( small amt ) with acrylic ( larger amt ), I practically just stained the top 1/4 or 1/5th.

Above pics were how they started, these below may be how they’ll end up —

Obviously “Healthy Vines Happy Heart changed quite a bit, while “Good Conversation” basically got some good tweaks 😊

Here’s each same-image pairing —

I’m pretty sure I’ve finished the 2, though I’ve been known to sometimes still tinker with my work in tiny places, sometimes successfully, sometimes regretfully, lol! But it’s all part of the process. Sometimes those tiny tinkerings are, when seen much later, just the right visual surprise that sparks the heart ❤️

Stay well everyone! Stay creative! 🙏

Adan

ps – I’ll eventually have a full review of The Adjacent Possible; I’m a little past the mid-point, and the most surprising aspect so far is, the basic principles repetition by the author, Nancy Hillis, it’s finally becoming evident to me, is by design, variable, and is increasingly helping me see her various points re creativity — and that’s very nice 💕

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My Latest Posts On My Website!

• January 19, 2022 – How I Applied Dianne Mize’s Art Tip, The Visual Path, To My Work-In-Progress, Part 1January 19, 2022
  It began after reading then reblogging Dianne Mize’s most recent art tip, The Visual Path, plus some reading I’ve been doing in The Adjacent Possible, about listening to one’s creative needs and acting on them. I’d already begun a new violet lay-in, destined, I thought, to be called Violet Impressionist Abstract 1; all along the lines of my other mostly-or-all monochromatic impressionist abstract work I’ve posted about ( my red and blue samples further down ).
• January 18, 2022 – Reblog / Review : Working the Painting Language – The Visual Path, via Dianne MizeJanuary 18, 2022
  Dianne’s continuing series of tips and samples of painting’s language of line and shapes and so much more, including, as per this reblog of her most current post, The Visual Path, have been a source of inspiration for me for quite a while now, and this is no exception. She provides not only the 2 examples in my header, but an entirely different style image, one from one of my favorite painters, John Singer Sargent, and ties it to the two simpler – yet in principle – similar images top of the page.
• January 17, 2022 – Art Delivery to Cypress Grill Austin for a Creative Arts Society Rotating Member ShowingJanuary 17, 2022
  I’m happy to post I’m placing my 1st piece of art work at a Creative Arts Society member venue in over a year and a half!
• January 16, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, Fantasy Landscape – New 16×20 #LyricalAbstract #AcrylicPaintingJanuary 16, 2022
  Fantasy Landscape is currently residing at the Old Bakery & Emporium in downtown Austin across from the Texas State Capital. It’s a super playful acrylic I didn’t realize would be “so much” a landscape as it turned out, lol! All part of the “discovery” process inside each artist, often call the landscape inside, probably in more senses than one, as Joan Mitchell has alluded to.
• January 15, 2022 – New 12×24 Inch #Acrylic Upload @FineArtAmerica – Blue Impressionist Abstract 1January 15, 2022
  Third of my 3 uploaded acrylic color blocks, each 12×24 inches on gallery wrapped canvas, Blue gives me a triad of sorts, the other two paintings being red and yellow. A link to related blog posts is – https://felipeadanlerma.com/?s=Impressionist+abstract I’ve always like panoramas, even in my….
• January 14, 2022 – Painting + Capturing Photos of the Sides of 2 #ImpressionistAbstract Panoramas Accepted by Art for the People Gallery AustinJanuary 14, 2022
  A few posts ago I announced about my art audition for an upcoming show at Austin local gallery, Art for the People, and mentioned I’d had a couple of my Impressionist Abstract panoramas chosen! One, the red version, already had its sides painted, but the newer blue version didn’t, so I got to work right away. Like I tell folks who like hearing ’bout how I put these together, painting the sides almost always takes as long or longer than the painting! Why?
• January 13, 2022 – 2 New Works In-Progress : Good Conversation + Healthy Vines Happy Hearts – #AbstractPainting #LyricalAbstraction #TheAdjacentPossibleJanuary 13, 2022
  Wasn’t sure what I wanted to paint this particular day, just really needed to 😊 I’ve been reading a creativity book, The Adjacent Possible; filled with good ideas, one of which emphasizes “just starting.” A concept the author calls zero to 1, which she explains is like this huge leap, from nothing, to something. She says it over and over, all different ways, and I understood it. First intellectually. Then emotionally. And today, physically.

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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