PALLET ART LEFT

They call it by various names, expressive painting, freestyle, gestural, abstract. It calls upon you to let your actions run wild, your movement making marks and lines. Ones you can find meaning in later or not at all. Easy Right? The problem is that disconnecting your movement from your thinking is tough. You find your brush hand fighting with your mind. One will not give up on the other.

When you paint though, you sometimes find your most free marks on pallet paper, edges of easels and canvas sides. Painters call these leavings. Some study them for hours finding new patterns of marks and colors to use in the next painting. Jackson Pollack became famous for his drip paintings. He discovered the technique by watching paint drip from a stir stick and observing its random marks.

A famous painter I knew always took pictures of left marks. He explained how he had become so popular that patrons wanted the same type of painting over and over again. The only freedom he had were the side marks left from his work, his pallet art. 

Getting a grasp and appreciate for these random marks moves you closer to the expressive style of work. You find that the random in life, unfiltered by your thinking can lead to new avenues of the art you seek. It’s all there on the pallet paper waiting.