The Paintings We Don't Mean to Paint / Dancing Side Of The Street

 

Welcome to my first Studio Note

Dancing Side of the Street

People often look at abstract paintings and say, "I could do that."

Maybe.

But for me, painting has never been about painting something. It's about painting something I felt.

Everywhere I go, I think I'm collecting things without realizing it. Colors, conversations, songs, places, the way the light changes at the end of the day. It all gets tucked away somewhere in my mind, and every now and then it finds its way onto a canvas.

This painting did exactly that.

I wasn't thinking about New Orleans when I started. I was just painting. Then Jon Batiste came on. Sunny Side of the Street.

And just like that I was back at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival '23.

My husband and I were dancing in the middle of the crowd as the sky turned a beautiful mix of purple, orange and blue. The brass bands seemed to bounce through the air, everyone around us was moving together, and there was this incredible scent of jasmine that I can still remember all these years later.

Funny how a song can do that.

I hadn't thought about that night in a long time, but somehow the painting had.

That's one of the things I love most about art. Sometimes your hands remember something before your mind does.

So this painting became Dancing Side of the Street.

Not because it's a picture of New Orleans. Because it's a picture of how that night still feels.

I hope the next time you look at abstract, or any other kind of art, you find your own meaning it what it means to you.

Thanks for following along.

Kerryn