The Art of Letting Go: Painting with Twine

Painting with twine is a practice in surrender—an abstract method where control is exchanged for intuition. As twine drags across a wet canvas, organic forms emerge spontaneously, resembling neural patterns or emotional currents. There’s no forcing the outcome—just presence, movement, and trust. Each piece becomes a quiet meditation on letting go and allowing life to shape the work.

Emerging from Darkness, 60 × 60, Organic Movement, 2024

There’s something beautifully unpredictable about painting with twine. Unlike a brush, which obeys the hand with precision, twine carries its own intention. It bends, slips, twists, and loops—responding to the wet canvas and gravity in ways I could never fully control. And that’s exactly why I’m drawn to it.

This technique began as an experiment, but quickly became a meditative practice. I dip the twine in pigment and let it move—dragging it across a freshly prepared canvas, watching it leave trails that seem to arise from somewhere deeper than conscious decision. It’s abstraction in its purest form. There’s no forcing an outcome, no plan to adhere to. What emerges feels organic, unfiltered—as if the painting is revealing itself through the act of surrender.

Often, the marks resemble neural pathways, or synapses firing—raw expressions of energy and thought. The more time you spend with each piece, the more layers begin to surface. Shapes shift. Connections form. What looked like chaos begins to feel rhythmic, intentional, alive. It becomes a dance between the viewer and the work, one that deepens with quiet observation.

Painting this way has taught me a great deal about trust—not just in the process, but in life. You can't always steer every moment. Sometimes the most meaningful forms arise when you give up control and let the material lead.

For me, twine is not just a tool—it’s a collaborator. It carries with it the unpredictability of nature and the immediacy of the present moment. The resulting forms are not imposed; they are discovered. And in that discovery, I find beauty, stillness, and a quiet conversation with the unknown.