Waste Not, Want Not - Remains of the Painting Session

[Hermes2020]

I believe in "waste not, want not", so this is a trick to use up any leftover paint at the end of a session. Firstly, I always have a few small, primed, and ready to use test canvases at hand in my work area. I like them around 400 x 400mm in size. Then, instead of discarding any paint left on the glass sheets I use as palettes, I slap it onto the test canvases in any way that comes to mind: pouring, splashing, scraping on with a credit card, dabbing on with a rag or sponge, or anything else. I even wipe most of the paint from my brushes onto the canvases before washing them. I like to sprinkle sand on parts of the wet paint as well. This completely unplanned playing with paint is very satisfying and gives me ideas I can use in future. These little "paintings" sometimes turn out so attractively, that I sign them and present them as spontaneous gifts to people who like them.

Here are two recent ones. Both are 400 x 400mm.

 

[ZenDruid]

Great colors and shapes! Nice that you gift these to people.

 

[Hermes2020]

Great colors and shapes! Nice that you gift these to people.

 

[Artyczar]

Yours turn out better than mine when I try this.

 

[Hermes2020]

Yours turn out better than mine when I try this.

Thank you, but I find that hard to believe.

 

[Artyczar]

Oh, trust me. I'm kinda a control freak! Not when I draw, but when I paint, yes.

 

[Hermes2020]

I know that I am also a control freak and over-intellectualize and over-analyze everything I do. I wish I could approach my "real" paintings as freely as this.

 

[Terri]

You are astonishing! This is a great idea and you are to be commended for doing it. Not only are you not "wasting" paint, you're giving yourself permission to be totally spontaneous. Something I seem to be blocked from.

Both of these are lovely, but I really love the first one. So bright, cheerful and fun. Great job!

 

[Hermes2020]

You are astonishing! This is a great idea and you are to be commended for doing it. Not only are you not "wasting" paint, you're giving yourself permission to be totally spontaneous. Something I seem to be blocked from.

Both of these are lovely, but I really love the first one. So bright, cheerful and fun. Great job!

Thank you, Terri. I think I am going to take a big, normal-sized (perhaps 800 x 800mm) canvas and try to get myself into that carefree zone by pretending it is one of those test canvases. I don't whether or not I can fool myself, but I will give it a shot.

 

[Donna T]

These are such beautiful abstracts! I hope you have as much success with larger canvases. I think I will try to mix up a palette of harmonious colors before attempting an abstract because choosing colors seems so hard for me. Thanks for the idea!

 

[Hermes2020]

These are such beautiful abstracts! I hope you have as much success with larger canvases. I think I will try to mix up a palette of harmonious colors before attempting an abstract because choosing colors seems so hard for me. Thanks for the idea!

Thank you, and good luck when you try it. One of the good things about this exercise is that you don't have to choose any colours. They just arise automatically from what is left on your palette after working on your other paintings. I forgot to mention that the ones I showed here were the result of a few weeks of leftovers, and weren't done all at once. I just kept adding to them gradually.

 

[Joy]

Being very frugal with everything, the title of this thread attracted me. That size (about 15 inches) would not really be small in watercolors. Other than some self study of art history, I know little about abstract painting. As far as attempting it myself, I wouldn't know where to start. I am just blown away that these were not the result of intentional planning. They just have a dynamic energy and movement, and I can just feel the juicy paint dripping down the canvas. Fresh and spontaneous!

As not to waste paint, what I have not used I leave on my palette and use for a sketch. Often I pick a subject based on the color that I want to "use up". A lifetime of never letting anything going to waste is very hard to change!