Walking in Circles

My painting of Mama & baby

I've been walking in circles lately because I just can't seem to begin a new painting. I thought my creative juices had dried up, I'm a creative failure, I'll never paint again but that wasn't it at all. Today it suddenly dawned on me why.   



1. Every room in our house is in transition (I'm just saying that instead of a mess) because I got this huge urge to Spring clean about 2 weeks ago and instead of completing one room at a time, I took on the entire house.  Now everything is out of place and nothing has really been cleaned! I am usually OK if I have one or two rooms where I can retreat to when the other rooms are going through their "transition" but not so right now.  Jeez....what was I thinking?  

2. I am trying to paint a cow right now that I am sizing for a small frame that I already purchased.  Not a good idea.  I want to paint him BIG! A big guy with BIG attitude just should not be painted small. Makes perfect sense to me now!

The BIG boy - see what I mean?

the Lavender is coming along nicely too!

So....with my "intention" (OLW) happening this morning, I came up with a plan. I set up a schedule to get the house back in order (phew!) and I will just buy a bigger frame so I can paint my big cow any size I want!

Sounds so easy now but believe me I have been walking in circles! 


              Time to go wrestle a cow!



"Don't wait for inspiration—pursue it." 

― Dan Zadra

Getting Un-stuck!



Narcissus



Iceland Poppy



The last two days I have been working on several new paintings for two new gallery shows.  When I am under pressure to complete something in an allotted time, my creativity doesn't flow naturally and I find myself constantly distracted.  Yesterday I struggled all day long and ended up painting over the portrait that I had been working so hard on!  So I woke up this morning with a new attitude.  I decided that I would take some breaks during the day and before I began to paint, I would have a game plan.  What a surprise, it was a much better day!  I took a break first thing this morning and walked around our yard looking at and enjoying nature.  Then I took three deep breaths and planned what I needed to do to resolve some issues with my paintings.  At noon, I took a lunch break and sat in the sunshine coming through the studio window.  Later in the day as the shadows got long, I went outside again with my new camera and shot some photo's of my garden.  It was interesting that most of the plants that are blooming are white.  Is that because I tend to gravitate towards a white & green garden design or is it because of something in nature where more white plants flower in the winter?  Mmmmm....I'll have to investigate! 



Snowdrops



"The earth laughs in flowers" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.