It's Only Paint

Not only is my course about painting it is also about getting yourself into the correct mindset and not limiting yourself. We are often our own worst enemy, I know I am. That little devil on the shoulder saying 'You can't do this', 'No one will like it' 'What will people think?' etc. You've probably been there as well.

At the end of the day it is only paint on board, canvas or paper. The more you do it the better you will become. Some days you will produce good ones and other days not so good, but don't let this limit you. Enjoying what you do comes with letting go and not being afraid and when you feel good in yourself the world looks a much happier place.

This also applies to life in general don't you think?

Work in Progress

12x12 inch

Acrylic on 5mm board.

Throw Away Boards

Throw Away board.

Or should I paint over it and continue with it?

Another concept introduce by Nicholas Wilton in the course is the Throw Away Board. Have a board by the side of you as you paint. Use it to wipe your brushes, try out ideas, put your palette paper over it (upside-down) at the end of the day - anything you fancy. Throw it away at the end, or maybe it might just turn into it's own painting.

Play Boards and loosening up.

The first assignments on the course were to creat an inspiration board and a desire board.

It will be no surprise that my inspiration board included the landscape of Provence, trees, flowers, spring and wildlife. These are well represented in my current art.

My desires - well this was harder. What was it I really wanted - make better art obviously but on top of that I want a larger studio, I want to feel confident enough to enter shows including juried shows, loosen up on my landscapes but without loosing the feel of them. The idea behind this is that if we don't say these things they will never happen, but somehow saying them makes them more likely to happen.

Our first painting assignments was to create two boards (12x12inch) by just putting paint down and not overthinking everything or even thinking about it. We were to call them play boards. In effect this is a loosening up exercise and fun to do. I often overthink my paintings before I start, and changing those ideas as the painting progress is hard.

These are my Play Boards

The two boards have a different feeling to them and are designed to show that it doesn't matter how you start as they will be worked on later and covered over with paint.

Fear - and taking an art course

I've been busy since our return from Namibia, catching up with a 12 week course I've signed up to. I missed three weeks while I was away but I am now on track.

It's a course run by Nicholas Wilton with a team of experienced artist. It is aimed at giving you the confidence to be certain and happy with the choices you make while painting and improving your skills. The graphic above was from a conversation between Nicholas and Cheryl Taves about 'Overcoming Fear and Resistance'.

To quote from Nicholas

"Fear and Resistance seem to creep up in our art process and grab us by the throat, often when we least expect it. It can derail our art making efforts and cause us to feel lousy about ourselves."

This is quite a strong statement but I have found elements of this in myself just lately - not knowing how to take the next steps on improving.

I find the above quote quite motivating, so perhaps taking the course is already having an effect!

Join me in my journey.