Spirit of Myself

Here lies an exercise.  Simply, a painting of an object (a toy elephant) placed on a cardboard box.  And yet, a most difficult one if the artist does not paint for oneself.

Technically:
I painted most of my groundwork with Alizarin Crimson (I don't know why... I just did... I suppose I wanted to brake from my usual approach.).  Over it, I painted thicker more accurate color.  The objective was to be imaginative, to be expressive and to have a clear motive.  I also wanted to use color in a way so that I would "feel" what color I wanted to use.  Since I instinctively chose to do most of the under-painting with Alizarin Crimson, a simple color theory of red vs. green naturally revealed itself.  Even the gray color of the elephant was mixed largely using the Alizarin Crimson red and the green from the background.

I rendered more finely only those details that helped express my overall idea and let the other less important details go.

Creatively (and more important):
My imagination and the psychology behind my vision is what drives the technical aspects of my painting.  My idea will dictate the means needed, the tools necessary and the appropriate medium required to carryout that idea--not the other way around.  So for this painting, I was searching for the characteristics that I liked and attracted me to want to paint this thing.  I wanted to express myself, create a mood and learn what things I liked from my experience with it, in this particular time and place.  Just imagine all the happenstances and past experiences that may be triggered and brought to the surface of one's consciousness just by looking at the object.  I wanted this painting to be more about myself rather than the elephant.

I did this, in part, by allowing myself to respond to color instinctively and not paint so... well, literally.  By "letting go" just a bit and loosening the noose on reality, my imagination was triggered to See other realizations.  Details which come to life and are relevant in my world.  In a way, I choose to see what I want to see--not allowing what I see to overtake how I want to present it.  A story begins to form and the painting comes alive.

Really, I look for what I like... and, to figure-out what one may like and why one may like something, may be the truest exercise to be had.