Starting a new painting - for some reason - can be quite intimidating. Personally I never liked the white canvas, starring at you, waiting to be covered with your ideas, thoughts and paint...
Only within the past few years I’ve come up with a way of making this start to a painting a little smoother - now I first layer a thin collage and paint it blue before I begin my work. To me, this subtle change makes a big difference. The fact that you spend time preparing the canvas before starting the actual piece makes it a lot easier. And personally I think blue is a better (softer) start than white.
In Dec 08, my husband gave me a HUGE canvas as a Christmas gift. I was both excited and a bit scared to get started. Then there was the move to Guam, I got busy with other things, and it wasn’t until this past fall I actually began the painting. The canvas is measuring 4 ft by 6 ft. This is a very new size to me - I am not used to paint on such a large scale, and it is a very different way of working. You have to get far back with almost every stroke of paint, as you can’t overlook the painting as a whole.
The image I first started I got stocked on for a few months, and I decided to leave this idea, and instead start over. Right now, as I am writing this, the canvas is (once again) covered in blue, and soon I’ll sketch a new drawing in charcoal, as a beginning to a new image.
