Serendipity?

I was unhappy with the way a couple of paintings were turning out, so I misted them with water from a spray bottle while the paint was still wet, just to see what would happen. That made a mess, and I got angry and blasted them with the hose. Here are details of what they look like now:






They look like fabric that was intricately dyed with indigo. Now we're getting somewhere. This I can work with.

Of course, when I tried to recreate this effect, I couldn't. Painting can be so frustrating at times. I never know what to expect, and I can't force it to turn out the way I want it to turn out. It's a process of continually having to let go and accept what is.

Every time I try to make a painting look a certain way, I mess up. But when I don't care how it turns out and am just playing around, the work looks great. This really becomes problematic when I'm doing a commission, and the client wants particular colors and a specific look. I can and have done it, but it's much more difficult than when I'm detached from the results.

Now I have the challenge of doing something with these washed out indigo paintings. It's not what I was expecting, and I've never seen anything like this before, so I have no idea what to do next. Hopefully something will come to me, either through divine inspiration or trial and error.