The Channel, Waiting on a Dream

(The Channel - top, Waiting on a Dream - bottom)

I am going to post two at a time today - so as I was saying last time, I had a bit of a pause on the painting and was backed up.  Once it got released there was an explosion of many paintings and I got obsessed there for a while.  I couldn't stop painting!  I appreciated that happening because during the dry period it felt like it will never happen and then when it did I felt compelled to ride that wave.  I am reading a book right now (don't have the title on hand) about how in order to really allow creativity to flourish, people have to be ok with failure and keep going.  I think that might be the biggest challenge that I am hearing from artists and people who have a dream of expressing themselves creatively but are afraid to try. 

So I just plunged right in, disliked a few paintings, heard the critic in my mind and told it to f**k off!  And then I got into what I felt was this amazing ride where I started to forget myself and didn't realize that I was about to pee in my pants because I forgot that I had a bladder that needed emptying every so often.  And that's how I rekindled my passion with the canvas and realized that I cannot live without this ritual of expressing myself visually. 

I feel called to teach workshops and show people techniques to bring out their hidden creativity.  One day...

The Enchanted Visit

My new painting 'The Enchanted Visit' came to me just like that. I wasn't expecting to finish it in under 2 hours but it swept me away and left just as fast. My husband and I decided we were going to use the night to do things that we needed to do with some music in the background. So I looked at the background of colors on my canvas (this is how I always start my paintings) and suddenly told him that I am unavailable to talk for 15 minutes so please no distraction. I saw the images flow in the background and my hand just took over. This was so much fun to paint and it was faster than many paintings that I have sweat over in the past and was not impressed with when they were done. I love it when that happens!