What would you put on your canvas at this moment?

My painting would be somewhat abstract in the background, but with realistic elements in the foeground.

The left three-quarters of it would be smooth horizontal layers of muted colors, pale, misty lilac and aqua and cornflower, layered, hazy like fog or a scrim, a grayish effect with a feeling of semitransparency. Vaguely seen through or behind it would be indistinct shadowy figures and shapes, representing partially obscured history, some dimmer and more distant and some actually pressing against the scrim so that their shapes intrude into the foreground as convexities. Much is going on behind the calm surface.

As the foggy grayish horizontal strokes approached the three-quarters mark, the layers would begin to be more agitated, and over a short space the smooth bars of color would deepen and intensify and become a jittery tangle of jagged up-and-down strokes like an EKG machine gone wild, and the colors would show purple and red and black, still muted but pronounced. The rightmost quarter would reflect a jarring future prospect of anxieties, worries, and fears shading into a cloud of darkness.

In the foreground, left of center, would be a large old-fashioned wooden office chair with arms, turned at an angle, a bit battered but dignified, with its deep brown finish rather worn. The chair is empty but for an open hardcover book with a blue binding, turned face down, and a pair of glasses.

Paint

@jeruba – Magnificent!

and that is why Jeruba is a writer. What a wonderful description!

Peacock feathers in different sizes to make up a starry sky and ocean thick with seaweeds

Thank you, @Dog. Are you going to paint it for me? :)

A million feathered lines that bunch to create the shape of a beautiful mind behind a beautiful face, peacefully gazing into a light of their own creation. Grey, white, yellow, pale violet, indigo, navy, black.

I’m actually taking a break from literally making that painting right now, actually. :)

Black. Red. Purple. Big, careless strokes. Dry paint. I would probably end up dripping ink in there somewhere.

Since I do mixed media a lot there would be other elements besides paint. It definitely wouldn’t be carefully cut out images at this point. It would probably be found objects. Wood or metal. Maybe leaves. Probably smears of dirt or mud, too.

I just converted our dining room into a makeshift studio, but have been feeling uninspired. Now I know where to start. THANKS!

Chip of course!

I would paint a canvas of this moment right now. I would be sitting at my computer looking at a page on Fluther about what I would put on the canvas right now, typing a response as to what I would put on put that moment on the exact same canvas….trippy

A ratty pair of faded jeans, complete with holes and brown and white paint splatters are in a heap on the hardwood floor. A pair of hands, with white paint on the fingernails, are visible from a first person perspective. A bottle of Rolling Rock in one hand, two Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules in the other. A Cheshire grin superimposed over it all.

My canvas has recently become a piece of native stone which is composed of the colors of the bush. It is the stone from which the aboriginal people have been gathering the ochres for their rock paintings for the last 30,000 or so years. It is red oxide, yellow ochre, and a creamy white. It is easy to power carve but still holds detail well, polishes to a satin finish with 240 grit paper and when sprayed with a light coat of satin varnish just absolutely glows with a sort of inner light. I have a piece at home waiting for me with a lizard drawn on it. I’ll start it tomorrow morning. I love doing the critters of the bush.

I would paint a picture of the seashore, because that’s where I long to be right now. I see a warm glow on miles of uncluttered sandy beach, and waves lapping the seashore, as the green-blue ocean reflects the sunfilled clear sky.

<—- sort of like this.

I’m feeling quite like a protestor. Grey’s and reds, sayings of courage.

I would first dip my head in a bucket of blue paint and make a print of the side of my head on the canvas.
I then would take my canvas and sneak into the rhinoceros cage at the bronx zoo. Once there, I would proceed to throw a bucket of orange paint onto the head of the nearest bull Sumatran rhino I can find, causing him to charge after me. Once he is in full charge, I will duck behind the aforementioned canvas and slip down into a secret subterranean tunnel to safety.
The 1500 pounds of angry orange rhino will gore the canvas with steel bending ferocity… leaving nothing but the tattered strips of orange and blue canvas dangling from the frame.
Finally: I will attach the following card and hang it in my restroom:
“headache”
rhino on canvas.
may 3, 2009

A blank white canvas, a black dot in the middle, with a sign and an arrow posted nearby, that reads “you are here.”

@shadowfelldown Now that is a great mental image! Headache on a canvas.

@Jeruba- I do not think I could do it justice.

I love the posts here- wildly inspirational.

@Dog, I have always been plagued by an ability to conceive striking images and an inability to render them. As a child I used to rip up drawings and paintings regularly because they wouldn’t come out like what I pictured in my head. As an adult I can still feel that frustration, and so I seldom try any more. Only once, once only, was I able to deliver to the canvas in oils the very picture I had in my mind, a dream image, and it was surpassingly satisfying. Even now I feel an urge to try to make this picture real, the one that came to me at your prompting, but I know I can’t do it, and so it’s better not to try.

I made attempted the aforementioned concept last night. Didn’t come out as beautifully as I had hoped :/
I was a wee bit tipsy

ebony black along the periphery of the canvas, slowly transitioning to a velvety rich purple, resolving towards a deep, dark crimson, then to pure yellow gold. The center would be ice white tinged with pale, blue, in the shape of misty wisps of glowing vapors, trailing off a translucent crystal. Within the crystal would be a woman, with outstretched arms, protesting her capture within the crystalline cage.
I would entitle this, Defying Captivity.

Today I would paint a bird flying just out of the reach of many cat claws symbolic of the many pitfalls that seek to keep me from being myself.

Paint

Today I would paint fireworks- attempting to capture the glow.