My first try in intuitive painting

So, we all know how intuitive painting goes. You aren't supposed to be an artist, you needn't think much, just go with the flow, follow your instincts and enjoy the process. Sounds simple enough? Yeah...

Let me tell you about the fact how intuitive painting isn't as simple as it looks. The fact is that we were taught how to draw since we were little and we know how even abstract painting has certain rules that make distinctive difference between a good abstract art and something my dog would have paint if I put some color on her.

But there are no rules at intuitive painting, everything is allowed and anything can happen. Easy peasy...

I started with a large cardboard (I was stingy and didn't want to use canvas). I glued on lots of pages from old books and let it dry. The fact that there weren't white canvas staring at me but math formulas (and I hate math, if you didn't know), didn't really help. And we were staring at each other for quite some time. I was already making combinations in my head where to put color and what needs to be seen when I reminded myself that I should just start and not think about the final result.

For the background I used acrylic colors, just throwing them randomly, remembering the first rule of intuitive painting that you shouldn't get attached to colors in your first layer, because you will surely cover them with other layers.

And I played with colors puting on one layer after another. I can't help myself from using all this vivid colors, it's just how I am :D

But after applying 3 layers I was stuck. The first rule is hard to overcome if you are not used to paint in many layers. And I'm not. And I got attached to my background and didn't want to cover it with another layer...

A little Facebook time should be distraction enough, so I started to chat with a fellow artist Jose from Spain whose work I admire very much. I told him I'm stuck with my first intuitive painting and he had only one advice for me. He wrote (kind of Zen): "Be water my friend". Hmmm.

I started to work and I tried to be water. And I swear I wasn't thinking at all, just playing and it was fun. On the next day I discovered how I subconsciously followed Jose's advice and not only I was water but I also incorporated sort of a river/wave/flow into my work.

I'm not sure if I can call it finished or only abandoned for a moment, but I certainly got a valuable lesson in intuitive painting. It's not easy as it seems but I think I should do it more often to open myself for new ideas and to learn how to listen to my intuition.