Sailing in the Java Sea Print

I'm recently retired and now have opportunity to paint daily. What fun! Working with pastels gives me so many options for color and texture that I am not at all jealous of my friends who paint in watercolors or oils. I live near the Atlantic coast and have done my share of boats and shore birds, but of late I've been exploring how an artist can let a painting develop without a plan, without a purpose, standing alone as color, value and form with as little intervention as possible. While I have noticed that the painting will not paint itself, no matter how long I sit in my chair and stare, I have found that somehow suggestions come to me, rather than the other way about. Not always successful, but almost always engaging. Years ago I was in the WVU library stacks, looking into Inca art. One carving by a long ago Inca artist, a cup ornamentation, it turned out, struck me. I decided to copy it, much enlarged, in acrylic. During that process, I am convinced, the spirit of that artist entered me, and now I am giving over my talent, such as it is, to those spirits. As one of the ancients said, "Sing through me Muse," or something to that effect.