Saturday 8 March 2014

Reaching Your Goals.

Spring is Here

Sometimes you create a painting that is so enjoyable you know in your heart that you never want to finish it. I feel like this with my primrose painting above. This started with a pale foundation wash of yellow , blue and orange. Gradually I worked outlines for the flowers and added a green foreground. I have soft and hard edges, hidden flowers and buds in the composition. The leaves in the foreground are now delicious with crinkle patterns for the leaf veins. Sat here looking at it, I have an idea of how to add to this piece tomorrow. Just a hint of brushwork to add more excitement to the top corner.

I meet artists on my workshops who consisently race to complete a painting in one go. And there is nothing wrong with that at all. But sometimes they remind me of my husband in the car when we are travelling. He will start the journey with one goal. To simply get where we are going. Where as I will get into the car and look to see if there is anything exciting on the way. If there is, I want to stop the car and enjoy my discovery. Each new journey to me ,is one that contains the possibility of a fantastic new adventure. 

With my art I am not just getting from A to B. I am loving the process of leaving A and I am heading to B in an unpredictable way, loving every second of not knowing what I will see next

And this to me describes working in a loose style.  Painting loose can be described as having a goal of reaching a destination but not necessarily describing everything you see along the way. But allowing yourself to enjoy what you see in the creative process.

I never want to reach the end of my artistic journey. And as with the painting above, I don't want to miss beauty because I was in too much of a hurry to get where I thought I was going in the first place

Artits Tip: Take your time, enjoy painting and don't make your life or art a race!


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello Jean,
I used to be that artist in a race against time, always trying to learn the next step, never wanting to re-explore things I'd done before. I've now slowed down a little and am enjoying the journey!
Thanks for an excellent article.
http://julianlovegroveart.com