Sweet Surrender

Giving up worries artfully

I spend the week consumed by worry – between cares, burdens, and balancing many roles. Wrapped up in all the things I can’t control, I am in no mood to create art. I hesitatingly face the canvas, believing creating art won’t ever calm me. 

How easily I forget.

I hesitatingly squeeze out the various colors on the palette. And the moment my paint brush touches a glob of paint, the magic starts. My worries fall away, and I calmly free fall into the painting – surrendering all concerns. I am vulnerable and therein lies the power. 

I’m working on the second draft of the seascape painting. The whole point of today’s self-imposed art session is to add vibrancy to the sunset colors and develop some magic in the sea. I have no idea what spell creating art has on me.

Although the sky still needs work, I add a thick smidgen of yellow to indicate the sun slowly dipping beyond the color-infused horizon. Each brush stroke is a blessing.

The sea is a mixture of Thalo Blue and Prussian Blue, and I indicate two major waves-in-process with the darker Prussian Blue. As I paint, I hear the calm swishing of the ocean and drunkenly breathe sea air. I add hints of white in the water to create a dreamlike mood. Instead of flat sand at the bottom of the painting, I organically create small sandy hills with which the water will have some kind of relationship. I leave a gap between the hilly structures so the water has the opportunity to perhaps flow out toward the viewer. 

When I am finished, I clean up the area, different than I’ve been all week. Calmer. Soothed. In flow.