New Painting

Here is a new painting.  I've been out of the practice of daily painting and so I feel like my groove has been interrupted somehow. I had gotten out of the habit of putting down collaged paper to dictate the face shapes. I was just "drawing" what could have been a torn paper shape or only using one piece of torn paper in select areas. This was an attempt to get back to painting what was there. I collaged scrapbook paper randomly and let the face come out of the background....using the paper shapes to dictate facial features, clothing, whatever. If you haven't tried doing this, it's really very freeing. Just allow yourself to "see" the possibilities. Why can't someone's tie be standing straight out? Why can't someone's teeth be, uh, well, little circles? I know the result is a little strange but I always try to paint the parts with careful blending and rich colors to make it interesting. Is it a clown? Is it even a person? I've learned that with art, you shouldn't "GIVE" all of the information to the viewer. In fact, when you find yourself looking at art for more than a moment and asking yourself questions about why the artist did what he/she did and for what reasons, then perhaps the artist was successful. I don't know if that's what is happening here but it sure is fun to paint this way. I need to do a video from start to finish. We'll see if that can happen soon. Happy Sunday and as always, SMILES!