This past week in between sketching and thinking about my next painting, I came across an old half sketched abstract design and for some reason abandoned project. I even had some paint on it. I was looking for a diversion and needed to just play on something that I wasn't too attached to. I picked up some masking fluid and merrily made abstract lines/designs with it. Once the masking fluid was dry, I started painting and defining a few shapes here and there with no particular design in mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the process since I didn't have to worry about messing up the painting! After a few hours I decided it was time to stop. So of course, the painting does not have any up/down orientation :).
As I was painting, I was listening to a program Art and Evolution on NPR's "On Point". Host Tom Ashbrook's guest was Denis Dutton, who has written a book " The Art Instinct, Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution." It was interesting to listen to Dutton argue that art is what helped humankind evolve from the caves and that art is instinctive. As Ashbrook put it "....cave drawings, natural selection, and Picasso. Mating habits, sexual selection and Pavorotti. Art, he argues, is not sublime. Its intsinct, from cave to concert hall." Its something to think about -would we be humans without art?
Tangled Web watercolor 16 x 13"
