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Writer's pictureTim Ellmers, Artist

Painting from Imagination and Memory

My current project today was more of a study to grab something from my memory and bring it to a canvas. Painting from memory can be easy as the imagination is an endless realm of possibilities. Nothing you do can be 100% wrong. Right? I grew up on James Island and lived there until I graduated high school. After I started college I ended up slowly moving up the east coast for school and work. Now I live in Hendersonville, NC where the beauty is in the mountains and rivers. While I love the mountains I often find myself traveling back in time to the place I called home. This is where I was raised and my roots began. The smells of the shallow pluff mud in the air are something I consider a perfume to my nose whenever I come back home for a visit. It registers and takes me back.


Today I decided to paint a test painting of one of the many creeks on James Island you have to pass to get on the island. This is a small study painting as I wanted to test the layout of what I want to do. Tomorrow, I plan to tackle it again but only bigger. One of the frustrations on this painting that I had today was that my paint clumped up on me. When it comes to acrylics you have to work quickly or add water to thin out the paints. This is one of the reasons I just love oils so much...you don't have to work quickly. Your oil paints will be wet again tomorrow, but your acrylics will not. Anyways, tomorrow will be interesting, but I at least have a better idea of how I want to improve this painting. My main goal is to make it looser rather than tight and detailed. We will have to see how this goes.


Stay tuned!


The Cloudy Stream (study painting); 8 x 10 in., acrylic on canvas

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