YOUR LAST BRUSHSTROKE
I don’t know where all of this color is coming from. All of a sudden, in the last few weeks, color is making an appearance in my small paintings. I am not fighting it. Just letting it roll out of my brush. I try not to pile lots of expectation on top of these little explorations. 11”x 8”, acrylic on wood © 2019 David Limrite
“It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”
Jackson Pollock, Artist
Your Last Brushstroke
I am reading an incredible book called “NINTH STREET WOMEN - Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art,” by Mary Gabriel.
In it, Willem de Kooning tells Elaine to, “Paint as if every brushstroke might be your last.”
He is not being morbid with this statement. He is encouraging Elaine to “GO FOR IT!” To paint with reckless abandon. To take risks. To push herself and her medium. To give it everything she’s got. To live in the moment. To live for the now. To make brave brushstrokes. To Challenge herself. To allow herself to be challenged. To take the path less travelled.
To paint like there is no tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but if Willem de Kooning told me to paint as if every brushstroke might be my last, I would listen. I would take his advice. And, I would paint like there is no tomorrow.
Elaine did.
But, why wait for encouragement from Willem de Kooning?
Paint like that now. Today. And, then again tomorrow. And, the next day after that.
Best,
David