Why I Do Not Use an Easel

On the Flat

No one has asked me a particular and obvious question. Why do most painters paint on an easel and I don’t? Perhaps they think they know the answer, that I am influenced by Pollock, a dripper-wanna-be.

Or, the rejection of the easel could be a statement or choice. Maybe I do it because it’s different.

No.

The simple truth doesn’t go back to when I was three and painted with bare hands on the front porch floor with forest green oil paint, the better part of a gallon, too. It was because I have always worked on flat horizontal surfaces. If a large enough table was available that would be where I would draw or paint, otherwise the floor would do. Most kids have floors and tables. Everyone works that way or begins working on the flat. In art school you are expected to use an easel, unless you are focused on printmaking. Guess what?

Etching, lithography, woodblock, and screenprinting were my media. All print forms are done on the flat. So, it is quite obvious that working as a printmaker for decades reinforced my predisposition to the horizontal.

If I had a large enough table maybe I wouldn’t paint on the floor.

But seriously, who needs a table?

On the floor paint doesn’t drip,

unless intentionally.

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