A Liberating Brushstroke

I have only a desk as a studio nowadays where I’m painting in quite small sizes and also doing a lot of abstract art journal drawings. I miss my former printmaking studio! But a few months ago I had the chance to use for a short period of time an old house who was going to be entirely renovated. That meant that I was able to do anything on it: paint walls, floors, cleaning brushes anywhere, spill paint all over without control. It was … LIBERATING!

I painted a lot in very large formats for the first time. I felt like creating without control and without searching a specific purpose: the place was the perfect chaos that for many years I was trying to control. No boundaries, no meaning, no titles, no right or wrong to the art world. Experimenting with all kinds of mixtures and colors made me aware that those abstracts are the perfect contrast in my life: I do not dare with a lot of “domestic-real” things everyday, but I can really be bold with painting. I felt I could experience that abstract art is about passion, courage and emotions that become real through colors and textures.

I loved the result, it was very daring and elegant within so many spills and brushstrokes! I called them “Color Studies” because I just picked a color I liked and started to interact with paper until they turned into a cohesive body of work, both colorful and monochrome.

What liberating thing have you done recently?