Monday, August 3, 2015

Sometimes Flowers Just Fall Off the Brush - Sometimes They Don't


You know the feeling, you sit down to paint, you have the perfect plan; and, seemingly without effort, the perfect flower just happens. You feel it, it's magical. Today, art is magic. That near perfect painting (nothing is really perfect you know) just "blooms." Excited, confident, proud, you wash those brushes (okay, you should wash your brushes) and prep your painting station for another day. The "newest" addition to your garden sits drying on the easel. You wake up the next day excited to tempt fate stroking your brushes across yet another canvas striving to reach new heights in your art experience. It's a new day, a new flower, perhaps a new color palette - no worries, yesterday was almost effortless. Load, tap, tap, strike, strike, push, pull, - wait...what happened? Time passes. You can't see it? What happened? You lost your flower! How? Why? How do you "fix" it? It has to be fixed. That "30-minute" timed painting drags into an hour, two hours...well, at some point you decide, it's just good enough. You set it aside for the day. Ah, but, not so fast - it catches your eye again as you head to bed. You simply won't be defeated. It's actually a lovely painting; it's just not what you set out to achieve. Perhaps a bit more of this, a bit more of that. You hit a stride, keeping at it for another hour or so. Wait, you should have stopped, 45 minutes ago. You remember - it was taking shape - before it looked belabored. What happened to that plan? You didn't stop and think before you continued with that last stroke of green. (Or was it the blue?).

It happens to all of us. Learning opportunities. Think about it. If every single painting just "fell off your brush" what would you learn, how would you improve, why paint more? 

My point - you ask? Enjoy the journey, every  last bit of it. Make a plan, stick to it - but, be prepared to chart a different course. It's only paint! I started out a few nights ago looking for that "white flower" experience once again. I found the search continued well into the night, into the next day and was revisited a third time the following day. I was thinking, perhaps overthinking my painting at this point. I was on a mission. I shifted my thought process and allowed myself to embark on a journey of discovery. I painted - I painted in, I painted out. I experimented with colors and mushed them into my background (I think "mush" qualifies as a technical term). I wasn't to be defeated - my paintings along the way were pretty. They just weren't what I was looking for. So, I ALLOWED MYSELF TO LEARN! Thus, today I am an even better artist! Learning through experience is the best type of education there is. Make your mistakes, power through those paintings that don't happen as quickly as you had hoped. Or set them aside until tomorrow. Enjoy the ones that just happen and, for goodness sake, allow them to do just that "happen."

Don't beat yourself up, learn

We all need learning time. Sometimes as designers/teachers we forget to allot time for this, for learning, for experimentation, for discovery...(By the way, you don't need much white for a flower to register white. But, I already knew that!) Thankfully, it's just paint!

Enjoy the Journey!
DeAnn

5 comments:

  1. Well said DeAnn! Always allow yourself to make mistakes. It is only paint. Just change it! :)

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    1. Thanks David. Yes, mistakes are definitely learning opportunities. I should be really "well-learned" by now. :)

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  2. Enjoyed reading this today! I struggled last night through a painting and this was just what I needed. :)

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    1. It must have been in the air - glad to know my misery had company. :) We are much better artists this morning though. All experiences are of valuable. What matters most is how we handle it! Paint on!

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  3. You picked my brain, DeAnn!! Good post, thank you

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