Art is Noticing

The process behind painting and designing my latest art print.

Last week I wrote about The Power of the Bare Minimum and shared some watercolor experiments I made during what became a month-long commitment to making one mark a day. I started by filling in small circles with monochromatic landscapes and textures from nature and ended up with 36 vignettes.

I had a vision of arranging all 36 circles on a single satisfying page. I didn’t know if it would actually look good that way, but I scanned them all in and started experimenting.

At first I thought I should “hand trim” each circle digitally for a more natural look. But the result looked messy in a bad way. I decided to go with a clean edge instead. Here’s a before and after:

Once I digitally cut them out as perfect circles, I knew I was onto something. But when I arranged all 36 circles in a square grid it still wasn’t quite as compelling as I wanted it to be. Here is what it looked like as a rough layout before I tidied up the alignment.

I liked all these circles together, but was left with a feeling of “so what?” It needed some context…. a subtle “why” … I decided to move to a portrait layout and add a few words:

These three simple words capture the intent behind both the process and the result of this piece. Painting each circle was an act of noticing. I noticed texture and detail in the world around me to use as reference and inspiration. I noticed composition when translating the grand scale of a landscape within the confines of a tiny circle. I noticed the way the paint interacted with different levels of water on the page. And later, I noticed how all these circles interact with each other when placed on the same page, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.

Taking time to notice is one of my favorite things about making art. My affinity for noticing beautiful things in the world around me (skies, textures, light, etc.) is something I learned from my Mom, so I’m extra delighted to share the story behind this print with you on Mother’s Day!

The final print is 11” x 17” and will be available at future in-person events (when I have more scheduled!). I’m still figuring out how or if I want to offer prints in my online store. Until then, I’m sharing two print files with paid subscribers at the end of this post!

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for being here! It truly means the world to me to connect with you every week.

Paid subscribers, please keep scrolling to snag this week’s art print downloads! I’m sharing Art is Noticing in two sizes!