Megan Caldwell Chandler

It has been a slow and easy week in the studio.  About a month ago I prepared pages for a large artist’s book, but I hadn’t figured out what to put on the pages of said book.  This week I decided to create a book filled with hand painted patterns.  I am aware this sounds underwhelming.  Perhaps it is.  But I’m pretty excited about working on this project.  As with many of my other books, I think this one might be an exploration.  I’m hoping when finished, I will have at least a few decent ideas for future projects. 

For the patterns created this week, I used acrylic inks.  I love painting with inks, because the colors are so intense.  Originally I wanted to paint loose and sweeping abstract works on each page.  But the truth is, painting abstracts is 100 times more difficult than painting concrete images no matter how often you hear someone say, “My three year old could have painted that.” (I HATE this phrase, and if provoked, I can go into great detail explaining exactly why a child could not “have painted that.”)  And so I opted for painting patterns instead.

I’m also very excited because I’ve been commissioned to create an artist’s book!   I would go into detail, but the book is a gift, and the receiver of the gift could potentially read this post.  When it’s all said and done, I’ll share the specifics.  This means for the next couple of weeks I’ll be working feverishly to have the book completed in time, and therefore may have to skip a week or two of posting on this blog.  Although when I mentioned taking a week or two off, my brother told me, “the people are expecting art, and they will not be denied!”  So…I guess I’ll have to do something, or else face the consequences.