Patience and Art

We all know the saying... Necessity is the mother of invention.  Today, I put my own twist on the old proverb.

Patience is the necessity of art.

This is a valuable lesson that I am still learning with each new canvas.  My latest ukulele is an example of applying patience.  I started by painting a bold streak of yellow down the middle.  Then I stared at it for a long time.  And decided I couldn't stand it.  So then I stared some more, trying to envision how I could possibly fix this disaster.

I had recently spoken with a local artist, who's paintings I admire very much.  He said he likes to water down his acrylic paint, creating a thin wash rather than the thick, goopy (yes, goopy) layer that can sometimes result from using acrylics.  At this point, the paint essentially becomes water color.  And here is where patience comes in.  Because I'm dealing with a pre-painted canvas (bright blue or green), I have to apply layer after layer to get the desired effect:  a deep, rich hue that doesn't look washed out.

So after several hours of staring, contemplating, walking away, staring and finally painting... here is the finished product:

This is probably the most far out Fishuku I've painted.  But I had a lot of fun creating it.  And I intend to use the technique again and again.