Inspiration Fridays! Cutting through the clutter.

Cutting Through The Clutter

Before I can start a new painting, I need to be able to get to my brushes! Welcome to this Inspiration Friday of Cutting through the Clutter!

“Get rid of clutter and you may just find that it was blocking the door you have been looking for.” -Katrina Mayer

It’s been a busy Summer.  I haven’t even had time for much navel-gazing which tends to be a big part of my creative process.  This year’s Learning to See course was incredible and we’re halfway through my alumni-only summer workshops. The work being created this year is over the top.

I’ve been thoroughly inspired and can’t wait to start my next series, but if I’m being honest, I have no idea what I want to paint! I’ve been spinning ideas around in my head, experimenting with little studies, and still feeling blocked.

At my studio, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to start a painting if I wanted to. There is no room. Old paintings hang on every wall and every surface is covered in clutter. If the Muse were to descend on my studio, where would she land? She might stub her toe.

Cutting through the Clutter

My studio can get so full that there is no room for the work.

Creativity is messy. It’s explosive. I’ve also found it to be cyclical. After the waves of creativity come crashing in, the tide will again recede, and it’s time to reassess.  Sometimes we can get so caught up in our heads that we fail to see what’s going on around us.  Instead of beating ourselves up for feeling stuck, why not start fresh?

The first thing to do is to clean up our space and make room for new inspiration to emerge. Clutter has energy.  E=mc².  Even on the micro-level, the mass of all of this stuff can weigh us down.  Because the universe abhors a vacuum, creating space also creates the desire to fill it (with new paintings)!!

Take down those old paintings and put them in storage or at the very least, turn their faces to the wall.  Clear off your tables and easels, organize your paints, and set out some new canvases that are ready for work.  Making space for new energy creates new energy. Before you leave the studio, have your palette ready to go, so that the next time you walk in, you will be ready to get to work.

Do you need clarity for your creativity? What gets in your way?

What tricks do you use to start fresh and cut through the clutter?

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Inspiration Fridays! Magic Hands!

Magic Hands!

A few months back I had the opportunity to go to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. The work was inspiring and honest, but what struck me most was Frida‘s complete immersion in her art.

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

Her home, clothing, and celebrity, all sprung from the same singular vision.  Although she was described as a Mexican surrealist, that wasn’t how she identified with her work.  “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

I have found the same to be true for my painting.  It can feel scary to be seen.  At first, I didn’t want people to be able to look at my life when they looked at my paintings, but there I was.  My paintings are a direct reflection of how I feel about being alive in this world today.  Sometimes they even teach me about myself.

Frida, Diego, and their monkey.

Frida, Diego, and their monkey.

What’s amazing about paint, is that it provides a safe place to explore who we are.  When we make a painting we have the opportunity to paint what is real for us. Whether our paintings are abstract or realistic, they echo the way that we experience our world.  We can make mistakes, and even reinvent ourselves on a daily basis.  The more we commit to painting from an authentic place, the easier it becomes to show up with that authenticity everywhere else.

We don’t have to limit our artistic expression to the canvas but it’s a great way to learn about ourselves and discover where we are at. What fills your subconscious?  How would you paint your:  Love? Sadness? Peace? Desire? Youth? Death?

Initially, these questions can feel unanswerable. I found that more often than not though, these questions just aren’t meant to be answered with words. Trust your hands because paint is magic.  The answers are hidden in the act of doing.

Have you allowed the real you to come through in your work?

How have you moved your art beyond the canvas and into your life?

Why do you paint what you paint and which of your paintings feel the most honest?

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Inspiration Fridays! Playing Small?

Playing Small?

It’s not the size of the painting that matters, it’s how it looks on the wall.

“When I paint, the Sea Roars. Others Splash about in the bath” – Salvador Dali

I love to paint big!  Maybe it’s just the artist’s version of having a big truck, but it feels great to scale it up.  A big painting does make a big impression, but before I take out the big canvases, it’s important to first make sure that I’ve changed my mindset from painting little to going big.

A big canvas just offers more space to fill with paint. What really matters is how we fill that space.  If our little paintings are poorly composed, their larger siblings’ flaws will be that much more obvious.

Playing Small

I’ve painted hundreds of studies and I’ve realized that it can be those tiny compositions that hold the keys to creating larger masterworks pop.

How can we make our smaller paintings bigger without losing the energy?

One of the most common issues I see when enlarging work is a tendency toward filling that larger space with even more detail. Instead of making the ideas larger, only the canvas grows, and we continue to paint at the same scale. We’re still using tiny brushes to tell our story.

The way I’ve turned this thinking on its head is by using larger brushes on smaller canvases.  Painting with a big brush on a small canvas forces us to make big decisions.  How much can we convey with as little information as possible? When we distill our paintings down into a few simple shapes, the impact of those shapes grow exponentially bigger.

When you start with big shapes and dynamic compositions, the rest of the painting can often just fall into place. Try painting a few 5″x7″s with a one-inch brush. Can you make a strong painting without getting stuck in the details?  You can!!

Simplify your paintings down into just a few big ideas. Have you painted a small painting with a big brush?

How do you make your paintings feel big?

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