Recently, I experienced a couple of stressful weeks that kept me out of the studio. During this time, it was difficult to work on anything, so I avoided painting altogether. After some time, I finally returned to the studio but still struggled with creating 'proper paintings.' Instead, I decided to focus on the simple joy of pushing paint around, which helped me reconnect with my painting practice.

✹About my “play Paper”✹

I have lots of paper stored in my studio that is specifically for creative play. I usually go for cheaper watercolor paper or mixed media paper, buying full sheets and cutting them down to about 8.5 by 11 inches. This size fits perfectly on my scanner bed, making it easy to scan and edit the paintings digitally later. I also repurpose failed paintings as play paper by gessoing over them to create a “blank canvas”. I reuse paper multiple times, front and back. Some of my play papers have 4-5 paintings worth of paint on them! Since I'm not selling the originals, I'm not concerned about archival quality and can gesso over them until they fall apart pretty much. This low-pressure approach is great for saving resources and money. I highly recommend reusing paper for creative projects when you can! :)

✹Materials✹

For this play session, I used some leftover premixed acrylic colors that I had prepared for a series of larger paintings. I also added just a few additional student grade colors to my palette (I use mostly liquitex basics, and a few winsor & newton galeria paints). Some other materials included:

• My largest brushes in various shapes: flat, round, fan, and a mop brush.

• 1 smaller brush for adding some little details if I wanted.

• A large and a small catalyst scraper. (they’re just a firm rubber tool used for moving paint around basically)

• Some palette knives

• airbrush medium and fluid matte medium for extending and glazing my paints.

That’s it! I wanted to keep it simple. I didn’t want to get overwhelmed with tools. I honestly could have left out the scrapers and the palette knives cause I didn’t end up using them very much. I would highly recommend using large tools to help you get more expressive. Also try to stick to a limited color palette, probably no more than 4 colors! It’s very easy to make a muddy mess when using this process, so the less colors you have to work with, the better off you’ll be. :)

✹process✹

This is a pretty common process for intuitive painting I think. I learned about the process on youtube and here are two videos that I think explain it well:

After the gesso dried, I arranged about 6 pieces of paper on a board and taped down all the edges together to kind of create one big surface. Make sure to use painters tape and stick the tape to your clothes before laying it down on the paper. I have a lot of issues with some of the cheaper papers ripping, and doing this helps prevent that.

I treated it like one large surface and painted across the whole thing. I tried my best to ignore the tape, kind of difficult cause it’s bright blue (I would recommend white tape for sure). It helps to imagine that you’re painting one huge painting. That gets you into the mindset of making bigger and bolder marks!

✹The Results✹

This isn’t even all of them! I had a couple of days where this is all I did. It was really nice. :)

✹What to do with the paintings✹

Once all the paintings dried, I carefully scanned each one and saved them together in a single folder. Now that these abstracts are immortalized digitally, I have the freedom to do whatever I want with the original pieces! I often find myself getting attached to these creations, hesitating to paint over them out of fear of 'ruining' something special. But scanning them first gives me the peace of mind to let go and explore new possibilities without holding back.

I have several different uses for these paintings:

• as bases for more representative work. They add wonderful texture and depth to anything painted on top of them! A good example can be seen in this post!

• As inspiration for composition and color in future paintings.

• Rarely, I’ll draw on top of them digitally or use them digitally as textures.

However, I think there’s many ways you can use these paintings in your creative practice! Here are some additional ideas off the top of my head:

• collage papers

• social media images or decor for your website

• covers for handmade journals/sketchbooks

• stationery or gift-cards

• paper crafts

• any DIY project that requires paint chips; you could use these instead!

• If they turn out really well you could even frame them and hang them up! Or take a high quality scan and get a fine art print made.

If you try out this process, let me know how you end up using these “play pieces”!