The beauty that remains
Much of my recent work has involved painting and collage. I love the feel of spreading paint across paper, watching the way the colours interact when they meet as I cover the paper I soon will cut with vivid hues.
I have been experimenting with templates and stencils… creating my own shapes which I can draw around, paint over or into and repeat and cut out, put together, arrange, rearrange, then paste.
Today, I was about to recycle a small piece of paper I had been using to protect my work surface when I was last painting.
Something struck me.
I looked a little closer.
A flower emerged.
I cut it out, examined it closely, saw beauty there.
When we create a work of art, so much more goes into it than what the viewer witnesses as a finished product. So much more is left behind… the chaos of the studio, the paint-covered palette, the dirty brushes or filthy fingers. We pack up, clear it all away, move on.
The same goes for so many things.
When something is finished, be it a work of art, a job or a relationship, be careful not to label the remnants as debris and automatically consign them to the trash.
Take a fresh look.
See things from a different angle.
Remove the bits that no longer serve you and see the beauty in what remains.
Please let me know what you find.
With love,
Julia x
I did just that with the children at nursery a couple of weeks ago. The paper that had been covering the easel and painted on over and over again looked so pretty and colourful that I felt unable to just screw it up and put it in the bin when the time came to replace it. We cut it into lots of different shapes and used them to make collages that ended up looking very much like art inspired by Eric Carle – so they happily painted hungry caterpillars to go with them which turned into a Great Wall display. (Will try & take a photo of it when I remember.)
Oh Janine, that sounds gorgeous. Trust you to find a beautiful, creative use for the pre-used paper. I would LOVE to see the wall display, so yes, please do photograph it when you have a moment. Much love, Julia. x