“What location inspired this landscape?” is a question I’m often asked. When I try to explain that there’s no specific place involved and my paintings just sort of come oozing out of my head, I get some odd looks. I need a better way to explain this, so I’ll show you some of the stages my paintings go through in this post.

I used to paint from photos. That’s how I learned to make paintings as a kid. As i grew older, it didn’t feel very satisfying to me anymore. When I stumbled across the idea of intuitive painting, I knew I’d found my new path. Intuitive painting is all about learning to allow your inner voice to express itself, practicing non-attachment and being in the present. I’ve been painting intuitively since around 2012, and I gotta tell you, it’s fun! (If you’d rather just look at the photos, please click here to jump to the photos ↓)

When I start a painting, I normally have no idea what it’s going to turn into. It’s just a big canvas or piece of paper that wants to have colors splashed all over it, and that’s what I do. Often the first colors to arrive on my canvas are paints that are left over on my palette at the end of a day of painting on something else. If I still have wet paints unused, I’ll get out some paper or a new canvas and use a palette knife to smear the colors all over it. I’ll also use various tools I’ve collected to make colorful marks. The leftover paints are often a muddy jumble of colors that have merged into one another. So basically, what I’m saying is that the first layer of paint on my canvas is a red hot ugly mess.

The next few times I paint on the canvas, I’ll add more layers of colors and marks. I keep doing this until I’m happy with the depth of the underlying painting and I’m starting to have a feeling about what direction to take it in. Then I start working on the idea that’s come to mind. I step back a lot to look at it and allow time for ideas to come to me. I rotate the whole canvas many times to try out different orientations.

Eventually, after possibly many detours, it starts to head in a concrete direction and the final image comes to life. It’s not finished, though, because there’ll be several sessions of tweaking and adding details. It always surprises me the impact that tiny little marks can make in the final stages of a painting.

I’ve dug up in-process photos of two of my paintings to give you a visual peek into my process. The first is from my Field of Wild California Poppies and the second is from an abstract painting that I’m currently working on. It’s more abstract, but in my mind it’s a field of tulips.

There are three canvases in the #1 photo, and the middle one is the basis for Field of Wild California Poppies. These were abstract first background layers that I created during a one-day art class I took at a local art store. It was in a vertical orientation at that point, but by the time I took the photo marked #2, it had been rotated to horizontal. I’d also added layers of color and marks on the canvas, and even started to create the sky. By #3, the bottom half was starting to come together. The bottom photo is the finished painting.

The first photo, #1, shows random colors smeared on the canvas with a palette knife with some mark making. It was done at the end of a day of painting using leftover colors. In #2, I smeared a very thin layer of gesso all over the painting to tone down the first layer and then added marks and more color. #3 is a continuation of adding marks and color, including an overall green tone. The canvas was flipped upside down during that third stage. The photo marked #4 shows the beginning of a sky. The photo in the middle shows the current status of this nearly finished painting.