Saturday, April 10, 2010

Artistic Potholes - Creatve Block

Well, headed north to Lake Huron for four days this week.....with thoughts to rekindle my artistic spirit.  Did it work?  I don't think so.

The day I left the temperature plummeted from 26 degrees to 6 degrees.....lovely and cool and rainy.  Just the weather I love.

The north was still there in all its spring glory.  The forest was absolutely enchanting....the evergreens bright and green after their winter dowd, the cedars looking bright and sparkling, moss so green I challenge any artist to capture exactly the green.  Raindrops dripping off branches in waterfall spray.
Lake Huron and its sand dunes and beaches looking more beautiful than ever; the wet sand taking on a lustrous pink hue; the dune newly sculpted from winter's wind, snow and rain....with nary a footstep to mar their beauty.  Pussy willows (catkins) all in bloom......my footsteps the only ones on the shore.
And then a monstrous black cloud wind whipped across the lake and on its edge a swathing all encompassing fog!  Melancholy and blue wrapping lake, sand, trees and cottages in an all encompassing blanket.

Now surely with all this inspiration I can paint again!?  Not so!  Surrounded by atmosphere and nature's beauty surely I can paint again!?  And here I sit, not painting.  The visions are there, the paints lie waiting, the canvas is on my easel.....what to do?  Over a month since I have painted.

I've read all the tips....'It's the fear of not being able to do it that is making you feel you've lost your inspiration .... approach your painting as if it were a job and DO IT".  Trouble with this one....my art is not a JOB.
'Force yourself to set a goal of  'x' number of paintings in a period of time', ' change medium', 'play the 'what if' game and paint an old subject using different medium, a different style....etc'.
Need to digest these and other tips and see if I can't climb out of this    creative fallow pothole!

1 comment:

  1. You have described this so beautifully and even the colours and chosen the palette and there is the two pictures either of which will make a grea tpainting. Just go for it dip your fingers in a go for it.

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