Tis the Season

I am finding myself with seasonal bloat. My lists are too long, needs of the family are many and the holiday invites are dotting the calendar. I am running around but not to the studio. My mind is full of those “sugar plumy” things and ideas for painting are few and far between. Nothing is capturing my attention, let alone my imagination. Yes, I did get a card designed for Christmas but that was more painting for a specific purpose with constraints and boundaries.

I am missing the experimenting, messy and frenzy work. Not knowing where I am going with a painting, surprises, and delight. I am missing “learning by doing.” Staring at a white sheet of blank watercolor paper is not fun. My friends tell me that this is actually part of the creative process.

Common causes of artist block include:

Timing: It is simply not the right time to paint. Maybe ideas I have may need to stew before I paint them.

Fear: Putting ideas (and themselves) out there for everyone to see and critique is risky.

Perfectionism: I want everything to be just right before I even put my brush to the paper. I want it perfect in my head before I begin and so I never begin.

Or as Jonathan Winters said, “I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.”

So which is it? Maybe some of all three.

So today, I am just going to paint. The secret is not to beat myself up over my “Phase”. So off to the studio I will go today, remembering to paint anything, even if it is pure crap for it will keep the creative juices going.

Julia Cameron wrote, “Whenever you feel stymied, stuck or frantic, remind yourself, this is the result of having too many good ideas-even if it feels like you have no ideas at all…”

Really Julia?