Yesterday as I was going through old photos I came upon some photos of hydrangea that I made in 2014. The images inspired me to create a loose and abstract painting of hydrangeas (below). This morning I photographed the painting, brought it into Photoshop and combined it with some of the hydrangea photos from 2014.
This is the first time that I began a painting based upon an inspiration from my photographs, for use with my photographs.
Practice, Practice, Practice
I mostly like it but wish that I hadn’t dropped the blob of green in the middle of the painting. The idea was to show a leaf peeking through the flowers. The result was a blob of green that didn’t look like it belonged. I did my best to camouflage it in the final creation but it still bothers me a bit.
However, I like the final creation and I like the painting given my goals and current skill level.
I may sit down with the painting later today and work on adding more detail to it. Sometimes that works well for me, more often it ends up a mess. But that’s how I’m learning what works and what doesn’t work. I may also sit down and create a new hydrangea painting based upon what I learned from creating this one. The only way to improve my skills as a painter is to…
Practice, Practice, Practice
When I was a child I played piano. While I wanted to be able to play well immediately, that didn’t happen. Instead, over time, as I practiced I got better. When I didn’t practice, I didn’t progress.
As a parent I watched my daughter go through the same process of wanting to be able to play piano immediately but needing time to grow her skills. At first her practice sessions were filled with frustration. What she wanted to do was so far beyond what she could do at that moment, that frustration almost stopped her from trying. Sometimes I sat beside her as she practiced and just having someone there to witness her struggle seemed to calm her down and help her persist. She needed help getting through the first really hard learning until the joy of playing provided sufficient reward to help her want to practice.
If want to create but get frustrated with the results, try befriending yourself and reminding yourself that skills grow and improve with practice.
“It’s a simple and generous rule of life that whatever you practice, you will improve at.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Let Go of Judgment
When I first fell in love with photography my photographs were pretty bad. Over time they improved. Fortunately when I first began I didn’t know how bad my photos were. In fact, I thought I was pretty good. Thank God I didn’t know how much I had to learn back then. I’m not sure I would have persisted had I realized.
The thing is, we all tend to judge our work and find fault with it. Or we fear what others might think of it. Writing this blog and showing my work for the last nine years has taught me to let go of judgment and fears about what others might think. At first as I paused before pressing “Publish” for every blog post, I felt as if publishing the post was like standing naked in front of the world.
“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
― The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Now I feel as if writing and publishing all of my blog posts has helped me discover who I already was and then become it.
What is it that you really, really, really love to do? Are you doing it?
May you walk in beauty.
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