NODNOL ISSUE #2 NODNOL-Issue 2 | Page 49

NODNOL creative reached a point where I paint anyway what I want because I “need” to paint. Very often I feel that urge to im- merse myself in creation, it’s like having breakfast because I’m hungry and when I don’t have breakfast I will starve, I will lose energy and something is really missing. Creating something is not about showing off and getting confirmation. Creating art is about telling and sharing an individual story, a feeling or it’s about let- ting something go. It’s healing and meditating at the same time. It’s about “doing” and “output” and less about “listening” and “input”. In times when I face challenges and difficulties; let’s say having less spare time, being involved in new, complex and complicated work; I have learned I need to create even more then. It’s absolutely necessary to put that other work away for a moment and into perspective to gain new energy for it as well. Sit- ting in front of a canvas, being splashed all over with acrylic paint, that’s when I feel alive and happy the most. Having decided to give abstract painting a go, I researched some techniques and decided to try out one that looked easy to me. I would call it the fluid technique because it’s all about letting the acrylic fluids run wherever they want on my canvas. I mix a good amount of one acrylic colour with water in a glass and I start pouring it on the canvas. I can prepare my canvas with splashing water already on it so that the watery colour can run more easily. Starting with light colours works best for me and then adding the darker ones step by step. I again like to splash water on the canvas and see how the colours mix with each other. They build a nice structure. I could also pour several colours in one glass, do not really mix or stir them and then pour them onto the canvas. The outcomes are less controlled and more spontaneous. I like that, especially when the majority of my week has C 44