Getting Trashed

There was an article in "Artist Daily" (email subscription I receive) called "Getting Trashed."  The article was written by Courtney Jordan.  I found it to be quite intriguing and timely considering I've been struggling a bit again with the desire to paint.  Going into painting with the mind-set it would be trashed truly helped in allowing me to just play without any cares.

Fabriano Artistico 140lb Hot Press
1" Flat and #10 Round
Daniel Smith:  Indigo, French Ultramarine, and Cad Yellow Medium

I sprayed the paper with my water mister and then started dropping in and swishing color around.  At first it sat at an angle but then I tilted it this way and that way allowing the pigment to travel.  Now and then as it was trying to dry, I sprayed a few drops of water from up high.  Tilted the paper back and forth and then finally let it rest till it dried.

Here is the results:

I sat and stared at this for some time turning the paper this way and that to see if I could find anything that might jump out at me.  I started seeing shapes and took my round adding a little negative painting with Indigo.

The shapes I could see were butterflies and/or flower petals.  I decided to go with flowers and continued defining petals using negative painting.  The bright yellow was distracting me so I decided to re-wet the brightest areas and layer with my blues.  As the flowers took shape I also did some lifting of pigment.  Not sure you can see but the final touch was swishing two petals with Quin Rose.

The final results:

Although meant for the trash, I've decided to keep it.