Forest of the Lonely River
I used to want to be a painter more than I wanted to be a writer. As high school graduation approached, my art teacher encouraged me to look at art schools moved me up to portfolio classes, but I gave up before I got started. I didn’t see a future in it. How likely was I to make a living off of painting? I dropped art in my senior year so I could join a program that allowed me to leave school after lunch to go to work. I became an artist all right – a sandwich artist at the Subway. Glamorous, I know.
Now, my main character in The Sculptor of New Hope, Ona Price, has taken on my struggle as the aspiring painter. Me? I haven’t painted in years, but I was inspired by my friend. Her name is Fay Kambos and she is always on some creative endeavor. I decided to make painting this week’s artist date because giving up art is a source of regret for me. I had some potential back then. If only I had believed in myself, I might have done well.
Here is my first humble attempt at watercolors. I didn’t plan on what to paint. I didn’t use anything for reference either. I forced myself to trust my artistic intuition. I forgot the simplest of drawing techniques, but I kept going, curling my nose at it the whole time, trying to relax into some measure of enjoyment. I tried not to dwell on the fifth-graderishness of it. Do you know how difficult that was? You’d be amazed at what your inner voice says when you start taking dictation. Some of the thoughts that went through my head were:
- Ha! You don’t know what you’re doing. This sucks
- It’s watercolor. You’re supposed to leave white space. Duh!
- You should just crumble this up and throw it away.
I don’t even register them most of the time, but they are definitely sneering and sniggering whenever I create something. Now I know the culprit of my creative blockages.
I turned on music to distract me from the annoying voices. Soon, I began to stop thinking. I reached the place where I wanted to be. Not thinking, just doing. In the end, I’m pleased with my little scene. It’s no Van Gogh, but I made something out of nothing.
I did it. I painted.
But I wondered why the scene was so bleak. What did that say about my neglected inner artist?
I decided this forest would not be desolate, but fertile ground for the creative future. At the very last, I painted in the first few leaves as a sign of the new growth to come.
It goes to show you how self-doubt can kill you before you get started, but if you persevere through those negative feelings, you will create something – anything, and it’s yours. No one else could’ve created anything quite the same.
(And it just so happens that I had a breakthrough while writing the last of my SICK series. The artist dates already seem to be working!)
Keep writing, keep painting, keep dancing, keep the creative fires burning. Take your inner artist out on a date and hashtag it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as #myartistdate so we can all share in the positive creative vibes.
I think your painting is lovely! I hope to see more.
My husband and I spent yesterday afternoon watching Bob Ross and painting – it was so much fun, even if our paintings weren’t quite what was up on screen. 🙂
That is so sweet that you two paint together. I will try to find some Bob Ross to guide me when I tackle the oils. Are there any episodes on YouTube?
It’s a lot fun! There’re some seasons in Netflix right now, not sure about YouTube. We just used acrylics to paint along with him.
If you want to do art work I would suggest you try oil painting, it is so much more forgiving. Water color is a one shot deal it is hard to change or alter. With oils you can blend, go over, or change. Then when it dries you can really correct what you are not happy with.
In your painting I like the unusual sky, you used blue and purple for the land instead of green grass or brown dirt and the one bud, There is creativity there.
Just think there is only one picture exactly like that in the whole world,
Thank you 🙂 I know you’re an experienced painter. I will try the oils next! XOXO
Christa – Your creation is quite nice! Why do you doubt yourself?! Formal training is not required to create masterpieces. I recently learned that our style is called naive art. Previously I was told it was impressionistic 😀
I think our painting has far more merit than a canvas with yard wrapped around it, or a blank canvas with simply a yellow dot – both items I’ve seen some time ago displayed in a contemporary art museum.
The beauty of painting is you never know what you will create. Even when you have your theme picked out or are looking at a photo for guidance. What unfolds is just pure magic! And that satisfaction makes it all worthwhile. :o)
Thanks, Fay. Yes, it’s similar to writing in that way. Even if you begin with a plan, you can never be sure what’s going to happen on the journey. Naive art. I’ll have to look that up!
Beautifully done. You must have good aesthetic instincts to do that from pure intuition. I can only sketch from a subject. What I can draw from pure imagination is best left unseen…
Thanks so much, Eleanor.
Looks great! I can’t paint worth crap. Also if you’re interested in learning a few basic techniques and stuff for art in general there is a YouTube artist I love that I can recommend. His YouTube name is Sycra and I think his videos are just the best. Keep up the great work. 🙂