Since there were no official courses beyond Painting II at Mississippi State, it was up to a student to contract a teacher to teach a “one-on-one” course. I did several of these. They excited me because they were more individualized and I usually did well with a final grade. First a course outline had to be proposed by the student and accepted by the professor. Invariably each art professor changed the course of the class after the first project. Instead of cramming in a bunch of new techniqueshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I was interested in, the art professor pushed me to continue with images begun in the first piece.
These two studies were created in a contract course that involved abstract painting. The art professor often worked surreally developing imagery from abstract shapes from “happy accidents.” He also enjoyed creating collages. The two pieces below were made prior to Swirl in Paint.