Artist Statment

I have many friends who are artists. For the most part, they paint what they see around them…landscapes and flowers and people. Sometimes I am a little envious because when they want to make a painting, they can look at an object or person, and take a brush to canvas and away they go. It doesn’t work that way for me. I can sit at my ease, and stare at a blank canvas(or more often, a primed piece of hardboard)all day long…but if I don’t have a certain impetus, I can slap paint on a surface until dinnertime, and it comes to nothing! I guess for me that is the backdoor definition of inspiration. So, when the feeling is right, I just know what colors to use and the blobs and lines on the canvas begin taking shape, and it is like seeing animals in the clouds. Then I continue to work, adding this and that until I come to a certain point where I am empty, and it is “quitting time”…is the painting finished…no, not usually. Most of my paintings take weeks and even months to complete…and even then…I look at them, and then I often see something else that needs to be added or changed!

So…on a technical note…I use stretched canvas or linen for the larger pieces and a hardboard called Duron board for the smaller pieces. Then I begin the process with oil paints that have been thinned with mineral spirits or turpentine and linseed oil. I keep adding to the canvas with successively richer layers of pigment until I am satisfied that I have followed the Muse’s directions! And that is it. It is a gift. I am a conduit. I am fortunate. And I thank you for the interest and the feedback.

Christine Schub