How To Paint When You Lack Inspiration
It has been a busy year. My summer was a series of workshops and family visits bookended with two exhibitions. Painting time has been sparse but I knew I had an upcoming stretch of weeks where my schedule was open to paint, paint, and paint. Finally last night I was free to go into the studio and found that all I wanted to do was retreat upstairs and curl up with a book. I looked around the studio at half finished paintings and thought, “Nah, I don’t want to work on that,” so I made a bargain with myself.
I will paint for an hour and a half. If I am still not feeling inspired after that time then I am free to leave.
Since my heart was not in it I decided that I did not want to do any preparation. I sectioned off a 5x7 and a 6x6 on a piece of U-Art that had previously been painted on then scrubbed off. Usually I am very particular about my palette but without the inspiration I did not bother with sorting my values or colors instead, decided to use whatever pastels I had laid out for a previous painting. First I tackled the 5x7 and choose to work from a photo I had taken on a recent trip through the Mission Peninsula in northern Michigan. I liked the graphic pattern of the hills, sky, and water. I laid in the darks, lights, and then the midtones. Next I adjusted the values and colors for a sense of depth and atmosphere. After a while I felt I had done all that I could and would look at the painting later to assess its success. An hour had passed and I decided to start a new one. This pastel was copied from a 5x7 oil I had done of three small roses. I felt like the oil painting had promise but I wanted to try it in pastel and in a square composition. Once again I used a mechanical approach but this time painted the lights first, then the midtones, and finally the darks. I finished blocking in the second one when the timer went off telling me my hour and a half was up and I could return to my book without guilt.
This morning I went down to my studio taking it for granted that last night’s paintings were unsuccessful and I could scrub them. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked them. There was freshness in the application that is sometimes lacking in the work I take seriously. Lesson learned: The most important thing we can do as artists is show up, and put the time in.
Even when my brain was whining, “Can I stop now?” - I ignored it and put in my time. Since I showed up, my painting did too!
