Painting on Autopilot

I couldn't resist painting one more leaf. A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk and came home with a fistful of good looking leaves. It was a difficult process of elimination, but I had to make up my mind before all I had on hand was a dried up pile of leafy bits. Working on this watercolour turned into a kind of Zeno's paradox; I wanted to finish the painting but the more I looked at the leaf the more I had to keep painting. When this kind of thing happens and I feel myself getting too persnickety, I turn off whatever music I'm listening to and that helps switch off the painting autopilot so I can wrap it up.

Nooks and Crannies

Phew, I had to make my way through plenty of fur, but I finished the watercolour painting of my friend Catherine's dog, Cady. This one took me a little more time than I'd reckoned because I hadn't planned to go so heavy on the detail. I'm painting along and then before I know it the nooks and crannies have sucked me in. I guess I don't put up much of a fight because I enjoy seeing the resulting sense of texture that comes into the painting. And by the by, if you have a pet that you'd like to see captured in a painting or drawing, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Every once in a while, I think it's good to do a "just because" painting, as in a painting you do just because you feel like it, and I feel like doing something in oil. Possibly because I may otherwise forget how to oil paint since I haven't done so for over two years. I'm thinking something that's large and abstracted. The weather is starting to warm up so I'll be able to use a studio space that's detached from my home and is the best place for me to do any oil painting. A curious 21 month old and an oil painting curing in the house strikes me as a terrible combination, and I don't want to test that hypothesis.

Before I go, I thought I'd show the process work for Cady's portrait in sequence. When I first started studying art in university I really disliked doing any preliminary work, the idea being that prelims would somehow deaden the end result (and besides, who wants to do extra work?). One of my professor's chastised this notion and cited Picasso as an artist who did numerous preliminary studies and produced final pieces that are both carefully constructed and appear spontaneously alive. At the time I remember thinking something along the line of "if it's good enough for Picasso..." 

One Suggestion for Conquering Procrastination

I'd like to say thank you for the really positive and encouraging feedback I received about Adam's portrait. On Facebook especially there were a lot of lovely comments and I noticed that many of them were from people who attended high school with Adam.

When I finish something I've been working on for a while, I find I often have to build up steam for the next project. It's not that I don't want to start something new, it's more like a latent sense of disbelief, as in, "Really? I get to start another painting and finish it?" Admittedly, it's a silly thought to have but on the other hand, it's a reassurance that making pictures hasn't become blase.  

As part of the process of getting geared up for starting something new, I was thinking about ways to encourage myself to get going and it occurred to me that one of the biggest things I can do is clean up my work space. Cleaning up seems to be a fairly common suggestion for improving work habits and is often connected to the adage that a cluttered space makes for a cluttered mind. Hogwash, I say! Personally, I don't buy that particular piece of folk wisdom because once my work space is clean and I'm working on something, the area very quickly becomes messy again and it doesn't stop me from optimizing my painting time (or if it does, I'm wonderfully oblivious).

So, why bother cleaning up my work space? Because otherwise organizing my desk becomes a prime source of procrastination. I tell myself that I'll start my next project after I clean up my work space. Once my desk is all cleaned up, I have nothing to stop me from starting that next painting. But until that time? Well, I can't start painting, my desk is too messy and now just isn't a good time to tidy up. Plus, the fact that I can't find the staple-gun that I need to attach the watercolour paper to the drawing board might also be a good reason to get organized.

Here's the preliminary watercolour of Cady the canine, and now that I've found my staple-gun, I can begin the final.