Elation

This is the first of my 2026 series. It's entitled, "Elation." These are my favourite moments. You can see how the piece changes from the beginning as you progress through the slides. I started with large loose motions with a pastel. Next I used a #12 Filbert in the same manner. I love the saturated colours, especially the red which was a mixture of Raw Sienna & Naphthol Crimson from Liquitex's Heavy Body Acrylic Collection. I will definitely use that colour again. The colours were well mixed which felt important. I enjoy the colour blocking visible in the initial work. And it was a totally different beginning than I normally have. It feels so wide open and fresh. I kept space around the outlines of the shapes so for the most part, they didn't touch. I liked how the white of the raw canvas was visible. I also tried to use the brush in one direction and never touch it again. It felt SO amazing to just paint without any care about what it was looking like. So much freedom there with no expectation of, "this has to look like something." It was very much about the application of the paint and how I enjoyed that and absolutely nothing to do with how it looked. It felt very satisfying. There wasn't one thing that felt wrong, because it wasn't. No mistakes, no errors, just progression. That whole idea of "Nothing Wrong" became directional for the piece itself in another way entirely. It started to inform what came next. I had an idea of painting a ticker tape parade and I would say this greatly influenced the outcome of this work. At a ticker tape parade there is just SO much happiness that there isn't any room for anything else. And "Ticker Tape Parade" was almost the final title for this work. It is after all about jubilation. A celebration of victory after a long struggle, or an arduous journey. And then the word "Elation" came to mind. Because it became about not the parade itself, or really the depiction of one, but how one would feel when they were there. Such great happiness and exhilaration, no room for worry or sorrow. And everyone there is on that same page, all standing together in unity, cheering with all our might at our uncommon victory.