Loose Work Requires THIS

Steve Griggs (Ep.59) work is loose and expressionistic. And the tool that helps him most in those efforts isn’t his pigments nor his brush.

It’s his Arteza spiral bound sketchbooks.

Sketchbooks are fundamental to Grigg’s artistic process. They offer a protected space where he can really explore ideas before deciding which ones to bring into a larger painting.

Here’s how he’s built that into his process:

Working in his sketchbooks, first, he will take a scene and paint it as he sees it. He will use the local color and values he sees in front of him.

Then he begins asking “what if?” What if instead of the grass being green, it was purple? What if he tried an analogous color scheme? What if he worked in a long portrait format… or what about a long horizontal format. What if what if what if?

He uses his sketchbook to explore idea after idea after idea. He calls these his motifs and he follows the ideas wherever they take him.

Then when he’s finished trying different colors and formats and techniques, he will find the ones that spoke to him most and begin working on a larger painting or paintings with those in mind.

Put it to Practice:

Artists are constantly working against the voice that says, “You have to finish paintings.”

As soon as you step into your creative space, you might begin to hear it.

“When are you starting a painting?”

“You’re not painting a painting, you're wasting time.”

And yet, as an artist you need protected space from that voice.

First you need time to warm up and be ready for painting. Athletes don’t step out of their car and directly onto the track for their 100 meter dash. They warm up. Artists also need that.

But in addition to your physical body needing a warm up, your mind does too. Your first idea isn't necessarily the one you'll love most. Sometimes you need to try a bunch of things to know how YOU want to approach the subject.

So look at your practice and ask yourself if you have protected spaces to do this kind of creative thought work.

This is a materials question and a process question. Make sure the materials you’re using allow you to feel free in working through iterations. If you start to feel like you’re wasting materials, find different materials to use for this.

From a process standpoint, practice holding time just for this idea auditioning. Practice pushing back against the voice that might be telling you it doesn’t count because you’re not actively working to finish a painting.

A sketchbook might be your solution from both a materials and a process standpoint.

And when you create protected space in your practice, you might find that you like your work more but also that it just feels better to create it too.