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What is intuitive painting you ask?

Good question! It can be and mean different things to different people. I will give you my version/take on it. Intuitive painting is basically where you are starting without any kind of preconceived composition or idea planned before starting to paint. It is a method where you allow for your own intuition and understanding of the medias, colors, etc. plow through without giving much critical thinking or “specific thought” to what your next step or stroke will be. It is wildly freeing and really allows you to access that ‘creative wiring” and gets the creative juices to start flowing!

Some artists use more child-like strokes/shapes/methods with their intuitive painting exercises. This lets you release all the stress of the “technical” things we have to worry about as artists—i.e., is it a perfect circle? No, let me go back in and erase 20 times until I get it PERFECT. See what I mean? BE. FREE. It also let’s you play without overthinking it. “Playing” is a fundamental building block of being an artist. It is what keeps our minds fresh, our creativity fueled, and our ability to keep that direct line accessible to create from our souls. If we do the same things over and over and over and over, we get bored and stagnant. Just like anyone that has that type of job…why do you think they are so miserable? YOU CANNOT LET YOUR CREATIVITY DIE! GO PLAY AND HAVE FUN! CHANGE IT UP!

Okay, I’ll get off of my soap box. Hopefully now you have a bit of a better understanding what intuitive painting is. However, you won’t FULLY know what it is until you try it for yourself! Read my article below about my recent experience with an intuitive painting style [which is very different than my “normal” intuitive painting style]… that was inspired by Betty Krause (an amazing abstract artist who uses beautiful bright colors to create fields of flowers!)…and then go try it for yourself! You won’t be sorry, I promise!

How I Did It

First of all, let me tell you, this was a blast! It was a beautiful spring day with perfect temps (with NO humidity—which is quite a big deal here in Houston!), where I was able to go outside and paint on my back patio. I used various mixed medias and my wonderful intuition. It really helped get me away from my bittersweet way of overthinking things. I started out with mark making using charcoal and Prismacolor colored pencils. I created intuitive “scribbles”….which then led to drawing out a quick sketch of a face (because I can’t help but do that when I’m doodling…it ALWAYS reverts to that🤣).

Then, I used High Flow Golden Acrylics randomly put on the canvas and sprayed with water. It created a BEAUTIFUL rainbow of colors. I used a brush to move those around a little bit, creating some nice secondary and tertiary colors.

Once I was happy with that, I started adding various other acrylic paint over the top of it…slowly covering it all up. As I painted, I was creating various shapes, lines, faux texture, depth, highlights, etc. Again, not putting a whole lot of thought as to preciseness, color theory, or any other “technical things” that artist’s pay attention to while creating. It was amazingly freeing.

Fun Fact: In fact, that is something that I have absolutely LOVED about all of my recent work in my Outbreak Series—it was SO freeing! I do have a Type A personality with a recent pretty high pressure, analytical type of job—so I’m sure you can understand why this has been so satisfactory for me! My previous artwork focused a lot on portraiture (which can be quite taxing and methodical at times, even though I still love it!).

After I had mostly covered up the first few layers, I then started to pay a little more attention to the composition and colors that I was using. After all, the goal is still to produce an aesthetically pleasing work of art. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the process. Definitely will be more of these to come! 😍

Below is a very sped up version of the hour and a half painting session that I compiled using my phone camera and the FilmoraGo app (which is AMAZING for this btw.)

Here is a picture of the final artwork below. It’s definitely different than my other work, but I really like it! I can foresee more of these fun adventures coming in the future!

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I’d love to hear all about your intuitive painting ideas or experiences in the comments below! You can also tag me in them on social media!