Small Paintings

In order to loosen up, I sometimes set up an assembly line of small format pieces of paper.  I tape as many as five pieces of paper down on my masonite board.  Then I start painting the first wash on one and then the next, and then the next.  By the time I've painted several of these, I return to the first one which by then is dry, and proceed to the second wash on all the  paintings.  Finally, I place the darks strategically around the focal points. 

This production line procedure not only helps to speed up my painting, thereby keeping a looser result, but I tend to repeat the same color schemes as well as rearranging the same objects into  different compositions.  This creates a small series which helps solidify an idea, a technique or a compositional problem.

Here are two paintings done in this manner.  Hey!  If it was good enough for Henry Ford.....well, you see where I'm going!