Getting Precious!

Dang! It's happened, started getting bogged down by the detail of the Elephant painting and so I have had to put it to one side for now and return to it when the flow is working. So, the part two update on this painting will be delayed until that time. 

Getting precious, is like hitting a brick wall at 100km/h, you become immobile and detached from the piece, specially when working in the meditation mode. So changing the focus and moving away from the painting helps to wipe the slate clean and rebuild the energy to do the painting again. In many respects it's like a writer's block, not knowing what comes next or wanting to do something with the piece just because you feel you 'have' to. There are no 'have' to do anything in artistic creation, not even with a deadline looming.

When the 'have' to moment arrives in my mind then if something is added to the painting, the painting as a whole looses its heart, its soul, it stops flowing and there is a heaviness and clumsiness about the work. Sometimes I am not aware I have taken a painting a step to far until I step away and then its - ooops - "step away from the canvas, put down your brushes, lock away the paints and go do something else.

So what did I do this time, popped in Facebook, thought about my next moves and decided to write  on my blog. Thoughts are now surrounding Owls, the painting I haven't touched for nearly over a year now and Geckos. Owls were pulling me quite strong a few days ago, however, as ever life goes on and my life that is had other greater pulls to be done - like assisting with the organic raised bed vegetable garden, shopping - basically the fabric of life.

My mind does wander and pull to the painting from over a year ago and not yet complete, it's like its tapping me on the shoulder and saying, "hey, come on finish me" lol. As for Geckos, well I have had a love of those beautiful creatures for sometime, even had a Henna Tattoo done of one, when I was in Ibiza on Holiday. The biggest call seems to be the painting from over a year ago.

The painting from over a year ago

To me this feels unfinished, at first I did feel I had completed it but as time went by the realisation that it needed to be altered came to the fore and so as I wasn't sure what needed to be changed, I left it until the time was right to paint again. This time has come.

Getting 'precious' about a painting isn't a bad thing, it just allows you to move away, focus elsewhere and come back, when you and the painting are ready to continue. Forcing the issue, will only bring more frustration and that's something an Artist doesn't need unless they are painting angry pictures. 

So much emotion goes into and is connected with the paintings I create that getting 'precious' with some will happen, by pulling away, it allows the painting and I some breathing space. I never want to paint something that doesn't feel right for me, the painting must have the feel of a soul in it, to be able to evoke an emotion, to 'switch' on a mind and interact with its viewer. That for me is my Art.