Renewal

Spring has always been my favorite time of year. It is when the world begins to wake up and start over. I love having the opportunity to wake up and start over. There are so many renewal opportunities build in to our existence. We have the opportunity to start fresh every single day. Our culture gives us a weekend so that we can start fresh at the beginning of each week. In my religion I practice spiritual renewal each week. 

As an artist I get to start new whenever I want. All I have to do is open my sketchbook and find a blank sheet, just waiting for me to fill it with whatever inspires me. I have a supply of blank canvases anxious for the first stroke of the brush. And I have a stock pile of old canvases willing to be painted over and made new again.

I think it's significant that before I can see the new blossoms in the springtime a lot of work has gone on below the surface. A seed had to soften and sprout and send out its roots. Those roots had to take hold and gain enough nourishment to send a sprout out through the soil and into the sunlight. And the sprout had to grow and develop a blossom. 

I so appreciate the opportunities I have to start anew. And yet, if I don't prepare myself for those opportunities how can I expect my efforts truly blossom? 

Daily Painting

While I love the idea of painting every single day, reality doesn't always allow it. However, I do know I can get better at it. It's easy to have an excuse not to paint - especially when I'm not working on a commission piece and in-between paintings for the book I'm illustrating. So I've given myself the challenge of painting every day possible, and if there's not a major work in progress to simply paint small and fast. 

So here is my attempt at completing a painting in one day... I didn't make it. 

Someone once said that excuses are like armpits - they all stink. So my stinky excuse for not finishing this painting in one day is that we were invited last minute to dinner with friends. Good excuse, right? In reality, however, I could have started painting earlier in the day, or prioritized my painting over socializing. Nevertheless, I did what I did and here is the result. 

The first image was when I remembered I hadn't take a photo of just the sketch. The second image is how far I got before my tummy and my head distracted me from my work... 

Moving Forward

This sketch was done on a day when I was remembering my brother who passed away in 1999. I was struggling and my thoughts and focus were on simply moving forward.

Moving forward isn't necessarily a linear process. For me it rather often starts with just a speck of hope and will from the center of my being. Then, 10 minutes at a time, I act on the promptings of that hope and that will. If I can keep listening, keep acting, and keeping believing, before long the speck has taken on a life of its own and suddenly there is something that I can really see and believe. 

UnStuck

I'm happy to report that I took my own advise and headed back to the canvas. I admit that it was a bit of a mind game. I noticed it during art school, I definitely see it in myself, and I see it in my students as well... it is hard to get oneself settled into the process. As artists we seem to always be fighting task initiation. Once we have our canvas just the right height, our brushes in perfect reach, our palette adjusted perfectly, then we still have to wander around, in and out of the studio until there are no more excuses. Finally we sit down, stare at the canvas, and eventually touch brush to canvas. Once that happens, though, it doesn't take long to get in the zone. And then the magic happens. Even if it's frustrating and things don't seem to be going right, it's hard to tear away. Eventually, however, hunger, the clock, or someone pries us away. And if we are away too long, we have to go through the painful initiation process all over again.

I did finally get settled in today and made great progress. I think tomorrow I will be able to call the painting finished!