Claiborne Colombo is an artist, Creative and Design Director based on Lopez Island, WA.
NOTES
Making art and designing things where the land meets the sea. A visual record of art, life, design, and inspiration among all other things…
Day 1 : Blobs, drips, and spatters
5 paintings started. 3 solid starts. 2 mess ups. 1 cover up.
for some the blank white page is terrifying. for me, getting started is easy – it’s continuing that is hard.
with watercolor you go in spurts. paint furiously. dripping, splattering, bleeding pigments into one another and then pause. it can take hours for it to fully dry. you leave that piece and start on another. although you’ve stopped working on the paper, the watercolor has not. colors are settling and soaking as water evaporates.
no matter how you left it, the painting always looks different when you come back to it.
in these moments you have to reevaluate, reconsider, and redirect where you are going. this is the hard part.
but i’ll deal with that tomorrow.
5 day challenge.
sometimes you need to jump off the ledge. 5 days. 5 paintings. starts tomorrow … blog post
I'm jumping off the ledge.
i’ve been reading a lot of artist interviews and have been inspired by their work (thanks great discontent). recently, lisa soleberg, nathaniel gibson, and elle luna‘s art have resonated with me.
i’ve been working primarily on smaller pieces that are very structured and use only black and white.
what i love about their work is the large size, freedom of color, and loose form.
i’ve also been feeling stagnate and uninspired. i haven’t spent significant time in the studio and am feeling depleted, creatively. enter an article about creative ruts. in this article, fear and self-imposed limitations are listed as culprits. it also explored the need to jump off the ledge to make way for creative salvation.
so yeah, fuck it, lets jump.
i’ve decided i’m going to make 5 large pieces completely opposite of the work i’m currently doing. i have 5 free days, and will work until i’m finished.
Studio Prep.
after being away from the studio, getting back into the groove can be a harder task than i would like. sometimes prepping work gets me in the flow and ready to create again. just by being in the studio i can get in the right headspace.
it also helps that i love the prep work.
i love pulling out a fresh sheet of paper.
i love getting the ruler out and trying to fold a straight edge.
i love pressing the bone fold onto the paper making a guide of where i will tear it.
i love taping down the edges of paper.
i hate staring at a blank piece of paper.
not knowing what to do is a hard part of the process.
usually i will keep fussing around the studio, tiding up, reorganizing, etc. until i find some sort of inspiration or have a thought that launches a starting point.
when all else fails – i paint still lifes.
hello flowers, i think you’re beautiful. do you mind if i paint you?
tonight, i am painting flowers.
