Like many artists, I mix way too much paint. Usually, the amount that I waste isn’t so much that I need to cry over it. (Though it hurts nonetheless) This recent commission I completed, however, had so much leftover paint that I had to do something other than toss it.

As you can see this painting required a lot of red-orange paint. Silly Faith did not paint straight from a tube, but decided that this color needed to be a mixture. Making the red-orange color a mixture meant more work, but I’m glad I made this decision in the end. The color was a nice balance between the other colors on the commission.

Thankfully my spirits were up after completing the piece and I had all of this extra energy to make something new! I climbed my way up to our attic (where I keep all of my spare canvases) and grab two 18x24’s. With no direction except the desire to make something, I experimentally made two abstract Arizona-inspired landscapes.

I only worked with the colors I had leftover. I also tried different paint applications. This little experiment also gave me the chance to use paint shapers, which is a grooved plastic in the shape of a chip that fits in the palm of your hand. I highly encourage you to be spontaneous when the extra paint situation inevitably happens to you, it can be wonderful just to paint without any repercussions!