by Diane: Simple recipe for painter's block

The roll of fox paintings was interrupted by my husband's gall bladder surgery. On Saturday the day after surgery he did well. We enjoyed a brief visit from daughter Melinda, Mark and Madisen being available in case we needed anything. We sure appreciate their love. As the days passed he could not sit around and constantly he was on the go giving me time to paint.

The fox is not visiting the dry field however.

Furthermore many of my observations were about violent encounters of wildlife.

Doing more violent paintings has no inspiration for me after the mass shootings last weekend.

 

Working in the flower garden before my husband's surgery was an obvious starting point for new paintings.

 

 One catalyst for creating something new is making connections between unrelated things. Making a visual connection between absurdities.

 I found a used surface - a partially finished abstract watercolor started in Ruth Armitage's workshop on Approaching the Abstract.

 

 

 

 I set up in my front yard where I could be inspired by our flowers. Even if my husband has a different aesthetic for the flower garden cleaning up my preference for a jungle garden, I could at least paint a jungle like Henri Rousseau's "The Dream".

 

 

 

Only "The Dream" is 6' 8 1/2" x 9' 9 1/2".  The forms in the large painting compressed to my small 12" square surface became a challenge more difficult than my ability to render.  I first painted the nude in the water departing from Rousseau's.  The abstract pipe cleaner marks like water in a stream became more dominate in the painting than "The Dream" and my flower garden. I decided to play with  the nude in the stream.

The lily at center took away from the flow of the stream. With some paint thinner on a rag I easily removed the lily. Removal was easy because of how well

 I had covered the watercolor with acrylic medium.

The theme for this painting will be continued

 on a medium sized 22''x28" canvas with another abstract already on the surface.

Maybe I will come back and paint more bubbles inspired by the circles in the original abstract. The bubbles are blown form the golden flute. Also will judge if this painting is racist because the dark skinned flutter is in a darker part of the painting.

I Have Painter’s Block - What I Am Doing To Get In The Flow

I have not painted for several weeks resulting in being restless, worried, and out of sorts. I need some creative excitement like painting. But I kept finding something to do other than painting. Realizing I had painter's block, I took the following steps for preparing to paint again.

1) Checked my photos for my favorites of this year like the sky with clouds before the storm.

2) Took a few minutes to organize and make space to paint in my studio.

3) Borrowed  “From Generation to Generation” an acrylic and oil painting from Barbara Levine who has similar interests as mine but has an entirely distinctive style of her own. In the past we borrowed each other's paintings before exhibiting together. Last time we got together we both didn't know what we would do with our new art work. Like Barbara I have reproduced my grandchildren's art in my paintings, I have not done one with the sense that my creative journey is passing as my heirs are about to blossom and take flight.

4) Checked where I was running low on supplies and ordered some on line. Took advantage of Michaiel's Black Friday 70% off all canvases and purchased a 4 foot by 6 foot canvas and three 3 foot by 2 foot ones.

I hope soon I will be in the swing of painting something meaningful to me. Whammy! OH Oh! I am putting a terribly difficult demand on myself. I don't need to make every painting meaningful. That pressure is part of why I have painter's block.

So a couple of days later I had a whole day free to do the underpainting. I loved mixing the colors and how drum tight the canvases are.