"I See An"....intuitive Painting?

I jump back and forth between canvas work and journals or papers. I purchased a giant canvas for a good deal recently and decided that I would just listen to high energy music and paint what came up. While I can usually complete an idea in one sitting, I chose to do what I felt and stop. I would then turn the canvas and try a different color, and different mark, a different brush. This process occurred over the period of a week or so. I used a water bottle to drip color and acrylic paints.

Colors that called to me

It was finally time to let be what was, and decide what to make on top of my intuitively created background. At that point, my husband decides to enter the studio and says "That looks like a coffee cup".

Do YOU see it? Of course you do, and so do I.......
.......
Silence.
You could hear a pin drop, except probably not because I have carpet in there.

I tried to stay loose and intuitive, but what came out? A coffee cup. I wasn't trying to listen to the influence, it just got in there. The first night I was pretty upset about it because I had just ignored my intention for this painting which I had so carefully put in place a week before.

A big giant coffee cup.
In the pics below you will see the changes I went through to get what I wanted out of it. I was inspired by Van Gogh's Starry night as a design on the mug and ended up loving that part. The steam at the top took a few twists and eventually it all came together.

I really like this version and plan to make prints from it.

Van Gogh influence makes it's appearance

Playing with steam

The final piece with shadows and details. Intuitively a Coffee Cup.

While it wasn't a completely intuitive painting or free abstract, it did become what it wanted to by listening to the paint and feeling of it all. Surprisingly I love it. It's the process that counts and I went off of the normal playbook, so I'll take that as a creative win!