Working More Loosely Without Losing Focus
Not losing focus, but letting go of the need to control every mark.
Working more loosely has been on my mind for a while. This way of working used to come naturally to me. Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with it.
And I want it back.
Letting the Material Speak
Walking barefoot through the water. Working with a palette knife. Leaving raw material, pressure, scratches and thicker layers of paint visible.
That is what interests me.
Not a surface that has been smoothed for so long that nothing unexpected remains, but a work in which the process is still present. A gesture that does not need correcting. A scratch that is allowed to stay. And blobs of paint. Those too, of course.
I want to see what happens when I give the material a little more room to respond.
That does not mean the material determines everything. I work with it consciously, and I absolutely use my techniques. But not every movement has to be immediately smoothed out, repaired or resolved.
Focused, but Never Sterile
I still need focus. Letting go does not mean working without direction or simply accepting everything that happens.
Of course, intuition plays a part. But it is intuition shaped by experience, knowledge of the material and everything my hands have learned by now.
For me, working more loosely means staying attentive without trying to control every part of the image completely.
There is a difference.
I want the work to stay alive. Focused, yes. But never sterile.
Allowing More to Happen
Sometimes letting go does not mean doing less. It means allowing more to happen. More movement. More resistance. More material. More of the unexpected.
That sounds simple, but it is not always easy. Especially when you know exactly how to correct, refine or finish something.
That is part of what I am exploring now: knowing when to intervene and knowing when to step back.
And that, too, can take some finding.
