In recent weeks, my left hand has become noticeably weaker. This has changed the way I perform a lot of tasks: eating, dressing, and, most notably, painting.
My latest attempt, a "bucket list" landscape of Orcas Island, is much rougher and more primitive than previous paintings. The brushstrokes in open areas are wavery and swirly, and details are (at best) sketchy. The figures are particularly rudimentary, similar to the partially-filled-out stick figures of a third-grader – although that's pretty much a dis on third-graders.
Perhaps I was just extra tired working on this particular painting, although I don't recall being so – and I did work on it over three separate days. Perhaps my newly acquired weakness has, indeed, given me a different "style." I'm going to try a couple more paintings, this time portraits rather than landscapes, before I accept this as a permanent change.
But if it's true that this is now me, painting-wise, maybe I'll take the advice of my friend Debra. Remember Gauguin, she said, who threw over a more realistic approach for intentional primitivism, going for bright colors, flatter perspectives, broad strokes.
He also moved to Tahiti.
Not a bad idea….
