About two years ago I tried oil painting for the first time in my life and I fell completely in love with it. I love the way the colors retain a light of their own even when the paint dries, I love the buttery consistency of the paint and the relaxing effect you get when mixing paints to achieve the colors you seek. I also love how forgiving oil paint is; yes it’s true that you can mess up with oil paints as much as you can mess up with other media but, contrary to what many people think, oil painting is much easier to work with than the unforgiving watercolor (which I also love by the way).
Two years ago however, I had to give up oil painting for logistic problems, I basically had no space where to store the paintings (even if I used canvas boards, which are much thinner than regular canvases). Now that I have a little more space available I decided to get the paints and brushes out again and I dedicated two entire weeks just painting and I absolutely loved it.
I particularly like to paint landscapes representing my beautiful Sicily, but I have also tried painting flowers because it’s a good idea to experiment and try different subject. Every subject requires a different approach and it can teach you something new about your chosen media.
One problem I always had, and I think I’m not alone here, is that I approached the canvas with the trepidation and stress of painting something beautiful straight away, I didn’t give myself permission to practice. Have you experienced that yourself? That is one of the worse things we could do.
I have been following Emily Jeffords and I have signed up to Making Art Work (not an affiliate by the way) and she compared painting to playing an instrument, what she said really stayed with me. She said that it’s normal for us to think that when learning an instrument we need to practice and we are not going to be able to play Mozart the first time we touch a piano. However, when it comes to painting we convince ourselves that we should paint like Michelangelo the first time we put brush to canvas. Why is that?
I realized I need to give myself permission to practice and don’t expect a masterpiece every time I paint; I also decided to adopt the mindset of “doing it for the process” (also an approach from Emily Jeffords), which means paint for the pleasure of painting and not because I want to sell the painting at the end.
You know what? After this shift of mindset I have produced work that I love. I know I still need to practice and that my skills and style will evolve with time, but I never used to like my paintings before so this is a huge leap forward for me and painting is so much more relaxing!
There is also one more thing I need to work on and that is: take it slowly.
I am not known for my patience when it comes to reaching a goal I have set; I want something, I want it now. With certain things this might be possible but with art is definitely not like that, and I have come to realize it should not be like that. Nowadays we tend to rush all the time and zap through life at lightning speed. But do we realize how much we miss by doing that? No, we don’t.
I am reading a book right now from the Japanese author Sosuke Natsukawa, called “The Cat Who Saved Books”. I am a firm believer that books find you in the moment in life when you most need them and I couldn’t have read this book in a more appropriate moment.
This book is packed full of beautiful Japanese philosophy, it’s about saving books but the concepts it contains can be applied in all aspects of life and I warmly encourage anyone to read it (again not an affiliate).
I haven’t finished it yet, but one of the concepts I loved from the book so far is how important it is to slowly savor everything you do. Enjoy every moment using all the time it needs because you’ll miss so much if you just rush through something, may it be reading a book or any other experience in life. There is also this concept that if you choose the easy and fast way you might find immediate pleasure without a lot of effort, but if you decide to scale a much higher mountain, the journey might be more difficult but you’ll be rewarded by a much more spectacular view.
So I decided to slow down, enjoy the creative process, may it be painting or creating patterns, and not necessarily choose an easier route just because it could take me to my goal faster.
What is your experience? Are you approaching the canvas, or paper, with the same trepidation? Are you always looking to get through things faster? Or are you one of those wise people whom take their time and enjoy the creative process?
Let me know in the comments below
Till next time,
Create and be happy