Friday, June 4, 2010

Funky Solution #1

Ever since the birth of my second child (now 9 months), I have had to adjust how I paint, when I paint, what I paint with, etc. I've always been naturally scatter-brained, with a tendency to fly by the seat of my pants, but the advent of Evan has caused an intensification of these characteristics. In consequence, necessity being the mother of invention, I've discovered some interesting solutions to problems arising from the afore-mentioned brain drain, and have decided to share them. Here's the first:

Funky Solution #1: When you've packed up kids and husband (to watch the kids, sweet man), along with plein air gear (easel, paints, solvent, canvas, paper towels, etc), and driven a fair distance from home (1/2 hour or so) in order to catch the evening light from a certain location, only to get there, get set up, paints laid out, reach for a brush.... and realize you forgot the brushes! they're still lying right by the washing sink where you left them... don't panic-- reach for a paper towel instead. Wrap the paper towel around your finger, dip in the pigment, and paint! For small areas, roll towel into a screw and dab. So...

~~A paper towel will substitute for a brush~~

If you look back through my posts, you will find the painting I did under these circumstances...

1 comment:

Celeste Bergin said...

Rachel, I've been watching that David Dunlop series on PBS and he paints a LOT with his paper towels! I was surprised. He "subtracts" a lot too. So Interesting! Thanks for reminding me that we shouldn't really rely always on just brushes.