Merrimack River Painters

PAINTING POSSIBILITIES

By Susan Levenson

I love to paint with watercolors. Their free spirit keeps me happy and passionate. Not knowing what the fluidity of the paint is going to bring is what surprises me, and then my head fills with infinite possibilities, that I would never have been able to create in any other way.

As we age our minds sometimes form a creative block. We get "stage fright" when confronted with a blank sheet of paper. I used to put away my painting things when this happened, and try again later. 

However, now I have created a game where I save discarded and inferior work, ordinarily headed to the trash, to play with. Sometimes the results are dreadful, but frequently the losers turn into winners.

Here are examples of some winners.

This painting was a bad start. I kept playing with brush strokes making them connect with the sky to become pilings. Over time I added the small boat, raft, more pilings and a yellow wash over the water. Finally, I added a squiggle here and there. It became one of my most successful transformations, even though it took close to a year to complete. 

A prominent gallery owner once told me that house paintings were of no interest to patrons unless the people lived in them. To this boring painting, of a popular restaurant and inn, I added the foot traffic to create some passion.  

Originally this 12" x 12" painting was a small section in the corner of a 15" x 22" throwaway. I liked this part of the original painting. I cut out this piece into this square format and created a painting that works. 

Several sheets of experimental texture exercises on YUPO paper had been hanging around my studio for years. YUPO is erasable so I began experimenting using these textures as a backdrop for something else. This Gull chick, from a photo I took on Appledore Island, hit the spot. 

The possibilities of watercolor are infinite. I had to decide whether or not I should make 2 or 3 paintings from this one by cutting it into 3 pieces. Originally I had cut it into 2, but now I realize it should have been 3.

I know use this photo as inspiration, and model of my work, depicting the architecture of the coast of Maine.