Sky 5

9x6 inches; watercolor on paper

$65. US shipping $7.50; email for international shipping

Leonardo offers external smudges for the pareidoliac in search of inspiration; my process with today's post is more like Alexander Cozens's; he suggested making the "blots" right on your paper; wrote a whole book about it, called "A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape". But I really think it was nothing new to working artists. I certainly didn't need a book; it just happens naturally.

It seems that objective drawing or painting is just the process of developing marks to the point of being suggestive; it's quite fascinating how slight a mark can do the trick, but most interesting is noticing what little changes can turn a random shape into a suggestive one; I don't know how it works, but it's easy enough to see happening. Once it does, the painting shifts from paint to picture, and you're off…