Pause for Thought

"Let us consider your mind for a minute, because it can be the single biggest problem when creating artwork.  Rational thinking may say that you have to do 'good work', whatever that is, to justify the time you spend, and then you should show and sell your work for it to have value.  Get off that channel.  See the worth in the process itself.  You are participating in active meditation - think of it as exercise of the spirit.  Your work and your spirit will grow together regardless of the results."

Peggy Macnamara

Pause for Thought

"I don't know why it is that we fail to talk about art in terms of humble diligence.  So much of making a career as an artist consists of the small strokes, the willingness to show up and try on a daily basis.  So much of being good at something consists of being practised at something."

Julia Cameron author of The Artist's Way.

Sketchbook Pages 10 January 2011

 A selection of pages from my sketchbook over the last few weeks.

You can see earlier sketchbook pages here and here and here.

Sketchbook Pages 29 November 2010

Here are the latest pages from my sketchbook.  You can see previous pages here and here.

Sketchbook Pages 22 November 2010

A Studio in My Pocket

Well, not really in my pocket ...

We went camping a couple of weeks ago, I took some great photos, and I took along a tiny, portable studio. Enough stuff to paint or draw on the run.

I like my travelling 'studio' to be compact and organised, so I packed my equipment into a tiny lunch box.

Here you can see the lunch box, pens, watercolour pencils and my paint box. There are two paintbrushes in the paintbox. There is my sketchbook, and two beautiful leaves that I found. I love to paint leaves. Oh, and that is a mini water container, in the front.

Look how everything packs neatly into the little lunch box, and on the right, I have even  squashed in my wallet and cell phone - nifty!


I packed this little back full of stones and leaves to bring home. It would have been nice to have a few zip-lock bags.


I have been quite extravagant with this travelling studio, I have packed a large set of paints and 24 coloured pencils, but there are plenty of compact painting materials suitable for travelling (or to keep in your hand bag or glove compartment.)


Take a look at this great  video on the Pocket box by Guerilla Painter. I'd love to have one of those!

And here is  the Winsor and Newton Artists' Watercolour pocket plus traveller. Very swish!

I have a new sketchbook, a birthday present from good-painting-friend-Judy, and it is an unusual format. It does not fit into my lunch box, so I have bought a 'sketchbag' from a second-hand shop to hold all my supplies. I have done a drawing of it in my new sketchbook:

I can now grab my sketchbag and run - oh - better remember to put in some zip-lock bags!

Do you have a studio in your pocket?

Sketchbook Pages 15 November 2010

I started a new sketchbook this week end, with the intention to use it often and post the pages here for you to see. It's part of my new philosophy - to make what art I can - during this busy stage of my family life.

I love sketchbooks (and notebooks and journals!) I could look at them all day! 

If you want to look all day, Here is a link to some images of sketchbooks. If you want to look AND read all day (and a bit longer) this link will take you a great sketchbook guide. I love the internet!

Are you keeping a sketchbook??

Why Painting is Like Golf...Part 1

My husband plays golf, and in his library of golf instruction manuals is a little gem that I have read from cover to cover... more than once.

The book is about playing golf well and the author David Graham, has an impressive golf record with many wins, including: an Australian Open , a PGA title, a US Open title and career earning of over 4 million dollars. (I have never heard of him). It is called: Mental Toughness Training for Golf.

I have no intention of taking up golf -  I did try to play on one occasion many many years ago - but frankly, I can't see the appeal. I am certainly not short of reading material, I very seldom read a book a second time, so what is it that appeals to me about this innocuous little book.

Let me take you through it:

Chapter 1: Learning from My Personal Struggle 

 Skip that for now - move on. 

Chapter 2: Why is Golf So Hard?

Bear with me you non-golfers - this will all make sense in a bit... 

Graham says

"What makes golf so challenging, so maddeningly difficult? How can the game turn you inside out emotionally, make you feel euphoric one minute and completely frustrated the next? Why is it so easy on some days and impossible on others?"

Sound familiar?

You're getting this now, aren't you?....For 'Golf' substitute 'Painting' ...

Why is Painting so hard, so challenging, so maddeningly difficult? How can you feel euphoric one minute and completely frustrated the next...

"The answer, I feel, lies in the nature of the game. It is impossible to master...As I see it, amateurs would benefit by understanding how difficult the game is. It is hard for them to accept bad shots, tough luck, slumps and the slowness with which they improve. They get discouraged. They scold themselves. They take it out on family and friends. Sometimes they quit playing altogether." 

Can you see why I was hooked?

Graham says that it is important to

• recognise the inherent difficulty of golf (in our case, painting) and to learn how to respond with enthusiasm and determination. 
• When you can identify the different ways that golf (painting) works on you emotionally and psychologically, then you can move on to the more advanced techniques for acquiring mental toughness that he discusses in the book.

So, difficulty number one:

Golf is time consuming - uh, I mean - Painting is time consuming

And because it takes so much time, there is plenty of time to think, and not all of that thinking is productive or helpful. So here are 4 strategies to manage that time - straight from the golf pro:

1. Keep your emotions in check

The first pitfall related to time, is the tendency to experience extreme highs and lows. Ideally you should remain on an even keel regardless of how the painting session is going. Don't get despondent if the brush strokes won't fall in the right place, or the colours are getting muddy - chin up! Keep going. Sometimes you need to work through a difficult patch to get to a better place.

2. Maintain your inner rhythm

Golfers (and other professional athletes ) have pre-shot routines, deliberate repetitive actions that they perform each time they are about to make a shot. The pre-shot routine sharpens focus, enhances rhythm and loosens tension in the body. 

Now it may seem silly to suggest that an artist should adopt a pre-shot routine, but chances are that you already have one without realising it. I find that setting my paints out not only prepares my equipment for painting, but it prepares my mind for the task at hand too. It is one of the small repetitive actions that I take to help me get my creative juices flowing.

In her excellent book The Creative Habit, acclaimed choreographer, Twyla Tharp talks about the importance of establishing 'rituals of preparation':

"It's vital to establish some rituals - automatic, but decisive patterns of behaviour - at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way."

A pre-shot routine - a creative ritual, removes the question - Why am I doing this? It reminds me that I am doing the right thing - I know what I am doing, I have done this before - and it helps to establish the inner rhythm essential to start creating.

3. Don't try to concentrate for the entire round

When we take up painting, we imagine that we will spend many hours in front of the easel knocking out our masterpieces. In reality, it is difficult to sit and paint for long periods of time and not feel fidgety, irritable and bored.  There must be artists with excellent powers of concentration who can paint for hours, but the rest of us need to take breaks (and eat snacks).

Break your paintings sessions up into manageable amounts of time, and take a break, a coffee or a walk between these. Start with short bursts of painting and work up to longer sessions when you have built up your painting stamina. If the task seems manageable, it will feel less like a chore and be much more enjoyable.

4. Expel negative thoughts

Because painting is time consuming, and as novice painters, we tend to paint as many bad paintings as we do good ones, there is a lot of free time for negative thoughts to creep in. Managing this is difficult, and even experienced painters struggle to be positive about their work all of the time. You can't prevent negative thoughts but you need to have an overall positive attitude that will help to expel those negative thoughts when they pop up.

Setting a positive mood might require a little self trickery, but it might be a good idea to repeating positive statements in your 'pre-shot routine'. "Gosh I feel good today."..."I love these new brushes."... "That is a fabulous still life that I have set up." Positive statements, even if you don't mean them, have a way of making you feel upbeat and confident.

David Graham says

"In all the years I have played with Jack Nicklaus, the cruellest thing I ever heard him say to himself was, "Oh, Jack!" He knew he could do better and he resolved to give himself a chance to do better. He didn't resign himself to feeling badly about himself or his game."

And so, to summarise:

• Painting is difficult.
• Novice or beginner painters would be better off knowing that painting is a difficult skill to master.
• One difficulty is that painting is time consuming allowing too much time to think.
• Combat this with 4 strategies:

1. Keep your emotions in check

2. Maintain an inner rhythm with a creative 'pre-shot routine'

3. Don't try to concentrate for the whole session

4. Expel negative thoughts

Who would have thought that painters could learn so much from GOLF!


Watch out for Why Painting is Like Golf...Part 2 where we will be looking at: The Elements of Mental Toughness.

Make Art or Make the Beds?

I have done very little serious painting since we welcomed our baby James into the family 11 months ago. Art and children just don't seem to mix. The new born baby stage is hectic, but the crawling stage is pretty intense too. My gorgeous 8 year old, Cleo, needs different parenting to the baby, and although Dad does his fair share, I can't seem to find the time or head space to paint. It does not help matters that we are also in the middle of selling our house. 

My good friend Chrisna tells me that she sketches in the car while she waits for her girls at their school. This got me thinking, if I want to paint, I need to have a plan.

Unable to juggle art and life?

Here are some strategies:

• Lower your standards. (Huh? You've got to be kidding me - how low can you go?) Maybe I can't paint large, time consuming oil paintings at the moment, but there must be something less labour intensive that I can work on.

• Experiment and learn. This is a great time to experiment, to try new materials, paint from life and hone my drawing skills. I don't have the time or inclination to put a body of work together right now, but I can still paint.

• Go smaller - a smaller painting will only in theory, take less time, but even a small detailed painting will be quicker than a large detailed painting.

• Change your medium. Acrylics take less time to dry than oils, and watercolours lend themselves to quick sketching.

• Be organised. In your art and in your life. Have dinner planned for the week, get the grocery shopping done, carpool.

• Make the most of the time you DO have. I set up to paint while James is awake, paint while he naps, and clear away when he is awake again. I try to be as productive as possible in that short space of time. 

• Have your easel and paints ready to go. This works quite well if your studio is not the dining room table, and you are not selling your house.

• Limit TV and internet time. (Except this blog!) These activities eat time. I get onto the computer at night when the kids are asleep and I am too tired to paint.

• Don't fret about what you could be doing. Be present with your kids in their time, and present with your art in your time.

How do you juggle your art and life? Please leave a comment with your suggestions and I will keep you posted with how these strategies are working for me!

I Have a Good Idea!

So... I have trawled through my sketchbooks, looked carefully at the work of artists I admire, looked at nature and the world around me and searched my inner thoughts and feelings.  I have paged through my Picture Notebook, and my Trash Can Journal, and I have finally come up with a good idea for my painting. Clever me - can't wait to get the paints out and get going...

This is precisely how most of my paintings start - I look a bit, think a bit, get a good idea and before you can say "Leonardo Da Vinci", I have the basic design mapped out on my canvas, all my equipment set out and I'm up to my eyeballs in paint.

Let me tell you what happens next....

I paint with great gusto for 25 minutes

I stop to make a coffee

I prop the work up on my easel and stare at it while I drink my coffee

I wonder about the placement of one of the figures in the picture

I paint that figure for 10 minutes

I paint around that figure for 10 minutes

I go to the kitchen to make a sandwich

I eat my sandwich staring at the painting I have done so far

I take my plate back to the kitchen

I notice that there are dishes in the sink, I wash them

I go back to my easel and paint a bit of the background of my picture

I paint for another two minutes trying not to think 

I stand back and have a little think

I paint a bit more of the background

I worry that the background is not right for the figures

I rinse out the brush I was using

I clean three other brushes while I am at it...and my palette knife

I wipe my palette a bit

I take a deep breath and make myself paint for another 25 minutes

I can't resolve the background

I quickly wipe off the background (I am working in oils here)

I wipe off the figure that was worrying me earlier too

I feel much better

I wipe off another few centimetres of another section of the painting

I paint over everything for 45 minutes

I stop to make a coffee

I prop the painting up on my easel to stare at while I drink my coffee

I wipe off the whole picture

I take my cup back to the sink

I feel much worse

I wash my cup

I look at my watch and realise that I need to fetch my daughter from school

I dash off to school

6 hours later, when everyone is in bed, I clean up my paints and palette

I carefully wash my brushes, first with turps, then with soap and water and put them away

I put the canvas away and my easel

I take out my old sketchbooks, and my Trash Can journal, I open my Picture Notebooks 

I start looking through them

Looking for...a NEW idea

Wait a minute...

I had a good idea.  I liked my idea, it excited me, it had me running to my easel.  I could imagine it as a painting.  What happened?

What happened is this: I did not check to see if my good idea was a great idea. I did not go through any of the steps that I need to go through before I start to paint. I did not work on my good idea. Of course it could have been much worse. I could have been painting for several weeks before I wiped it all off. It would not have been the first time.

So...if you have a good idea like me, here is the very first thing you need to do before you start painting:

Do Nothing!

Live with your idea for a few days.

And when you have done that.  I will tell you what you have to do next to turn your good painting idea into a great one!

True Confessions Sunday...

I am writing all of this excellent advice, (and thank you so much to the 3 kind people who have let me know that they have been finding it helpful), but I am not following it myself, so I need to get some things off my chest:

I Confess:

• I haven’t painted anything in ages!  Ouch! It hurts to say that! I want to paint, I think about painting – I have recently tidied out my painting area, but I seem to get caught up in mundane chores, and before I know it, the day is gone.
• I have spent more time in front of the computer this week, than I have spent on my art work in the last month.  Ouch again!
• I suspect that I may never be more than an artist –wanna –be.
• Some of the things that I paint and draw, I think are rubbish.
• Some of the things I paint and draw, I think are fantastic, but I am so mightily shocked that I made them, that I am sure that I can never do it again.
• My current sketch book is empty.

·      

Does this sound like you? Is there hope for us?

Fortunately I always think there‘s hope and I am ready to kick start my creative routines and get working again.  In fact, I quite like a little shake up and a fresh start.  So where to begin? Here are some ideas that I am working on.

• Accept your feelings. It’s OK to feel that I have no talent.  It’s OK to feel that my work is rubbish.   I need to accept these feelings, but not be overwhelmed by them.  Feel, but work anyway.
  
  
• Find a place to work and make it your own. 

• Set your working hours. Just knowing when my work time is, helps to get me in the right frame of mind.

• Set a quantity goal – so many hours a day, one small sketch or painting a day, something that you think you can manage – be realistic.  There are great examples of artists who are working on daily projects that over time add up into interesting bodies of work.  You might like to look at Karin Jurick’s 100 Faces, or Kirsty Hall’s Diary Project or look at Matt Kish’s fascinating images on his blog, One Drawing for Every Page of Moby Dick.

• If you are finding it really hard to get going, get someone to work with you – at least some of the time.  I have set up a painting date, once a week with my good friend and fellow artist Judy, this is a great way to get me working again, and it doesn’t feel like work!

• Dust off your sketchbooks and journals and carry them around with you.  These always make me feel like a real artist.  Look out for future posts where I discuss different sketchbooks and notebooks and ways of using them.

• Get to work.

Some Great Resources

• The Creative Habit , by Twyla Tharp
• The Creative Person's Hierarchy of Needs, by Cynthia Morris

Quote of the Day

"Most people aren't as creative as they wish they were, because they haven't mastered strategies for creating while life is going on around them."

Eric Maisel 

A Place to Work

Every creative person needs a physical workspace.  Not every artist has the luxury of a studio, but everyone can find a corner to make their own.

I have a 'studio' - a store room at the back of our garage - it's hot, narrow and dark, perfect for storage, but not good for painting.  I keep my paints there, ready to go, and then set up in the garage with the door open when I am painting.

I have a $5 portable card table (a junk shop find) that I use as a painting table - it's the perfect size, its legs fold away for easy storage and its very light.  It's my favourite piece of equipment.

Painting equipment in the storage room, ready to go.

My portable painting table set up in the garage

And here is me painting in the garage.  It really is no trouble to set up and pack away after each working session - but you do need to be organised, or you may spend all of your time running to fetch something .

This is me painting in the garage - the light is good when the doors are open.

I do a lot of reading and writing about art, and I collect articles and clippings and scraps of paper that I constantly refer to.  I feel happiest when all of my paperwork is close at hand.  Here is my desk, It's near the computer, in the study, right next to the kitchen.  I can quickly grab something to read or jot something down in the middle of making dinner.  This is my 'think tank', the nerve centre of my creative life.  (It is not normally this tidy - I have recently done a clean out.)

The think tank - all my note books, sketch books, books that I am reading etc.

 

This is what it looks like when I am working - I spread out all my things on the study table and work in a rather messy way.  Because I have to share the study with my family, I pack all of this up when I am finished, and it goes into the storage boxes on my desk.

What all my notes and books look like when I am working

When you have chosen the environment that works for you, and made it your own, you have cleared the first hurdle, you are ready to begin.