On Size

I remember learning to print and write.  Seems that a change from pen and ink to pencil to crayon had a "clean it up effect" on my writing.  Some things don't change.  I regularly make my writing more legible by changing pens, pencils etc.

In the painting world I also find that I enjoy changing the size of my canvas.  Somehow I seem to go through cycles going from big to mid to small to extra small and then in reverse.

I know that painting is best with gestural strokes coming from the shoulder.  Far better than those licking blenders from the fingers.  Yet when I go small, the tendency to to get tighter, more precise.  So I stick with the large brush most of the time.  When I go bigger I find that I can control the sweeping strokes better even though I enjoy more loosely painted work.  So I guess I can get intended loose strokes more easily.  Really handy for edge management and big brush manipulation.  Regarding brushes, I get the opposite reaction.  If I go small, I find I lapse into pickiness  and far too busy passages.  So I am better going larger still then settling back to something at the upper end of comfort.

Elora Backstreet, 24x30, Oil on Canvas

Before the Plow, In Process, 6x8