Adding in elements

I realized something HUGE the other day! I was updating my Facebook photo album to include my recent work and immediately received responses from friends. One friend remarked that it was a happy experience to see all my paintings at once. I was curious so I went to view the album myself when suddenly it struck me; there before me was a body of work! And there was a physical progression! I don't know why it hadn't occured to me that I would see growth and change there in my paintings. I seem to only think about my work in small increments - when I started doing pine trees or when I stopped making my landscapes flat. The progression I saw in my work was the sum total of all those increments and it was measurable! And it made me wonder - what will I see in 5 years when I look back over an even larger body of work????

Doodling with intent..look up Zentangle if you don't confident in free-flowing doodling

Lately, I have been exploring my "doodling" to try to develop some complexity to my work. There is a local I did a painting of a friend's cat introducing pattern. I can't say I enjoyed it and I definitely did not even like the finished product. But it was an interesting exercise and I walked away with the experience of yet another element added into my skill set as an artist. Whether I can connect the dots and incorporate it into future work doesn't really matter. As with all things, it will either evolve or be assimilated. The point is to aggressively experiment and try new things without being concerned with a final product.

The concept of doodle patterns added to a painting

watercolor paintings