Blank paper.
Hello everyone, it's been awhile.
There are many reasons and excuses for the lack
of paintings and posts. Many changes in family health over
the last two years plus difficult events that mess with the mind.
At least my mind. Of course I have at least a 100 meaningless
excuses for not painting.
It was a huge mistake to stay away from painting and drawing
for such a long period of time. It all feels empty now. I ask
myself questions like, didn't creativity and passion come naturally
before? Why does color seem to be a mystery now, why do I
doubt my ability now, what happened to confidence?
Hopefully I'll be able to find them again and get back to it.
During the last couple of weeks I've been studying other painters,
watching on line demo's, looking at my books and searching for
ideas. While doing this I realized something. Many of my paintings
tell no story and seem to be just pretty pictures that would make
nice wall paper or place matts. Yeah, yeah, I know, stop with
the pity party. Pity or not, it's real and factual. Lorianne will love
this but part of my problem are reference photo's which I take by
the hundreds. I've been spending a lot of time looking through them
recently hoping for some creative spark. It would appear that my
tendencies are drive by reference shots with no thought process
just images. They all seem to be taken on gray overcast days
that are flat as a pancake or sunny days all shot during mid day.
Now that's smart, no shadows, no contrast no common sense.
Plein air, now there's a subject. I've purchased five easels to use
during painting adventures. How many have seen the light of
day ... 2. How many have seen the light in the past 3 years ... 0.
Are you loving this Lorianne? I'm sure you are.
Well, I've gotten this far and now I can't remember what my original
intent was but at least you all know where I've been and where I
am. Down the road there may be a post that involves a brush and paint
or pen and ink or finger paints and feet. Maybe I can get my grandkids to
paint something for me.
Until we meet again and thanks for listening to me drone on!
12 comments:
Okay, buster, it's time to get back to trips to Jackson on Friday mornings.
(Or even...yes, even that session we love to hate on Wednesday nights!)
You described me exactly. It's good to know I'm not the only one going through this. What disturbs me most is the fact my paintings need to be more than pretty little pictures. I haven't figured out how to get there. I guess that's where the creativity comes in. Thank you for sharing.
Good to hear from you Doug. I look forward to seeing more art someday, but don't pressure yourself.
David
Thanks Chrissie, I look forward to that time. Getting Mary well seems to be taking far to long ... still concerned.
Anonymous, never feel alone. I guess we can say we've discovered what we want to change about our paintings. Hang in there.
Nice to hear from you David, you've been doing
some nice work and lots of it. Why to go pal.
One of these days I'll get up off the matt and start painting again when the time is right.
Hi PB,
I was so excited when I saw your post come up on my blog and then giggled a lot when i read it. I have a piece of advice.... stop looking at the other people, things, etc. It is all inside you and sometimes looking at everything else just freezes you up. That old "bad mouth" talk starts up...sparked by comparison and your brain taunting itself. We all do it. We are never good enough.
You are a painter-dude. ;-)
Hopefully that's true. Thanks Loriann "B" got to get by a few things and then it will be time to start something.
I think...Now there is a different way of expression of your inner. Let it out.
Don´t be afraid!
Hugs!
Thank you Bea for your advice.
Hopefully some art work will appear in the
near future.
nice writing!
Painting with the grandkids sounds like it'd be pretty inspiring, and fun.
I had a similar revelation about my boxes and files of "reference" photos--they're all terrible! But for some reason I can't chuck them.
And last year--illnesses, deaths, so many things that took my mind from painting ... and now I'm trying to get back to it, you are right: it's a mistake to stay away too long; it makes you question everything. I really began to think I'd never paint again, it seemed entirely possible, even though it had been such a big part of who I thought I was. Limping back now, and hoping for the best.
Good to see you coming back too.
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