Beginnings can be daunting. Many artists fear the blank canvas.

New creators fear mistakes in beginnings.  “What if I start wrong?” 

Chances are you will. We all do. More often than you might think.

So start again, pluck out a new canvas. Or wipe it off. Go in another direction. It’s all very fluid in the beginning. Sometimes you need to make the mistake. To feel it out. To find your bearings. 

It’s like buying pants. 6 styles, all desirable for your comfort, figure, style, look great on the rack, but until you try them on, you won’t know the best choice. 

I love the beginnings. I step to the easel every time wholeheartedly as though this is the first and last I will ever create. It clarifies, bringing forth human vulnerabilities, and a sense of gratitude. 

Beginnings hold realms of possibilities, within freshly squeezed paint and newly stocked supplies. Inventing a new palette, discoveries await. It is a thrill each time I reach for the brush.

For me, fear can show up 50-70% into a painting. Doubt and second guessing drain spontaneous intuitive energy from the brush. 

Dayna, creator of handmade dinnerware, articulates this so well. “Of course it’s fearful at that time of the process.. because you are committed. You  have eliminated possibilities, and there is no going back.”

Insight transferrable to life choices.

When commitments and investments have been made in relationships, careers, communities, life decisions, there can be reluctance to change, or let go. 

With impossibility to retreat in time, confidence may falter along the path. 

Regret and unwillingness to admit mistakes, pride can dig in its heels. 

It can be a minor or major life dilemma.

You love everything about your awesome new pants, except they scrunch uncomfortably every time you sit down. 

It becomes more complicated in major life choices when years, heart and soul are invested. Regrets weigh heavily, prohibiting positive solutions and new perspectives.

As a veteran artist, I know I could test every option before proceeding, create oodles of sketches, palette decisions, and trial canvas sizes. But until the brush moves, until I am FULLY in it, I won’t know if the direction is right. Sometimes, oodles of prep work can deter art from feeling fresh. From becoming. So many variables, planned and spontaneous during process will influence a painting.

The image may change unexpectedly. We grieve expectations which never came to be. In painting, it may be an original concept that never came to fruition, despite full  effort.

When this happens, seek to discover and embrace a new vision. Ego has no place here.

Bogged down with regret only saps energy and sight from future possibility. 

Waste isn’t in time and commitment spent, it is in the reluctance to let it go, to forgive,  unburden from that which wasn’t meant to be. 

Letting go is a frequent practice in art.. of limiting beliefs, of tired ideas, and, of art. When original paintings are sold and collected, the artist knows they will never create another just like it, ever, and likely never see it again. The process is beautifully fluid this way..creating, and releasing. 

Proceeding whole heartedly at each stage of process allows me to let go and move on if it didn’t work out. 

Which is also how I feel about my career.

Dreams are a living evolution, they can be re- moulded, influenced and shaped, painted over and renewed with fresh strokes.

All stages of life journey life are an accomplishment. A beautiful testament to your individuality, resilience, passions, and discoveries.

~

New work!

Sunset Moon ~ 18×24 oil on canvas, $1,210.oo ( 2019 pricing).