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.
Beth I loved this post! Such a gentle and positive reminder that the moment we go to our creativity toolkit, everything just gets better!
I remember someone told me once, “Worry pretends to be important.”
That has stuck with me all these years. When we worry, that negativity really doesn’t do one thing for the issue itself. Except take up precious life energy.
You have the solution in your palette of colors. The answer is action. Keep painting, your work is so beautiful and very much needed in the world.
Those are my favorite blues too, they are so calming. I’m glad you are able to access your painting to cope with the world. I’m a little envious of the ease with which you fall into your flow space. I’ve been struggling lately with distractions. Keep painting!