Abstraction at the Richmond Art Center

I am teaching a beginning painting class at the Richmond Art Center. Hopefully I have organized an environment that lets us sample different ways to engage in the discipline, which is why we based our abstraction in the observation of an object. I modeled this with a small (16 x 20") painting, mostly because I did not want to be looking over anyone's shoulder. I am also trying to cultivate self-awareness as we paint, so I took note of my ow process. It took a long time to convince myself not to go on my "automatic" mode, which is quite representational. But with patience it slowly emerged. I was pleased I was able to play with the essential elements of this still life, and happier still that I left my internal editor in the dust.