Serendipity

Mixed media acrylic paintings

Remember Les Automatistes, a Quebec avant-garde artistic group of 1950s practicing ‘automatic painting’, blind-folded, un-intentional, expression of subconscious? And our ‘Close to Heart’ Marcelle Ferron among them?

Is it truly possible to create a stunning painting by random unconscious movements, without any contemplation at all? Just look at her paintings, and the answer will become obvious. Or, think Jackson Pollock’s drippings – the floor of his barn now preserved as a snapshot of his ‘process’ – splatters and splashes of paint, yet magical somehow.

Painting with alcohol inks, I use a side piece of freezer paper where I drip inks (and alcohol) for dipping my brushes.  Totally random, my attention is fully and undividely focused at the painting I am working on.  Lately, working on gel plate techniques, fast, I roll my brayer on the side paper to clean it up. No second thought on these movements, they are automatic, lost in the frenzy of quick decisions needed for the gel color layering.

I realized some time ago that some of these ‘smears’ are quite interesting, a visual joy, beautiful and unexpected – so I got into the habit of saving them…

Now is the time to pay a tribute to these collections created by serendipity… occasionally they were given a small ‘lift’ by a line or two. But, in essence, they were works of accident- hard to find even subconscious in them – unless you consider personalized movements and gestures a work of individual archetypal brain… Regardless, some are indeed a beautiful visual experience…we take no credit for them, a pure chance!