Last month I rose to the challenge of painting in The Summit Gallery, something that I was really not comfortable doing. I like to paint when I am alone in my home studio and no one else is anywhere near home. I turn up the music, surround myself with the inspirations for the piece I hope to create something that feels good. The idea of painting in front of people and having to talk with them while I am trying to create was daunting. Creativity is not a switch that I can turn off and on. This is how the process went.

My son took several photos of a Park City sunset from our deck one summer evening. The photo that inspired this particular painting was in an exaggerated horizontal format and I really wanted to give that a try. I started with a sketch of the mountains in a china pencil in my home studio so that I would have something started when I got into the gallery. After getting set up in the gallery, I painted the sweeping clouds in the sky. Then I messed around with the mountains and my true to form usual process of trying something and then thinking it is too uptight and controlled, wiping it and starting again. After the third or fourth try I decided it needed to be more abstract so sprayed the wet paint with a solvent. I was able to keep the texture isolated in the mountains since the sky was already dry. I put the painting on the gallery floor so the paint would stay put and not run into drips. I took a break and upon my return realized that someone had walked on my painting as footprints were visible in the wet paint! Scrambling quickly, before the paint dried, I was able to rework the areas and eliminate the footprints. It is now varnished and framed. If you get the chance, please drop by The Summit Gallery on Main Street in Park City and see it in person.

Mission accomplished. I got out of my comfort zone, tried something new and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun.