Taking the PAIN out of Painting.... and other stuff

Satsuma Vase 16x12
See this and more at
Monadnock Fine Art Gallery, Keene, NH
opening reception,April 16, Friday, 6-8pm

The last several weeks have been just plain weird.  It's like I woke up and forgot how to paint.  Nothing I tried was successful, and I had an opening at a gallery that I really needed to get work done for.

Pretty frustrating.  

When I whined about this, several kind and wise souls told me to just relax,  don't be so hard on myself, and even take time off if needed.   Maybe that was the permission I needed, but thinking about their advise helped me to just sort of let it go, go with the flow, and not worry about it.  And then, voila! All of a sudden I'm

back in the groove, and things are finally happening.  Not a huge explosion of creative energy or anything, but

little happy blurps of painting joy.
So how DO you handle a painting funk?  What to do when painting is painful? (I actually did get a shoulder overuse injury from furiously painting for a show,but that's not what i mean).  Here's what I did.
First I examined what was going on in the rest of my life - stressors, or conflicts of time, etc. These kind of things require energy, and you only have so much of it. If you're overdrawn, then you'll have to pay the fine, which is a lack of creative juices where you might want them.  If you can't juggle your schedule, then just back off for awhile. This was partially to blame for my funk. We're trying to sell our house, and busy, busy, busy with that...
Then, I listened to the advise of some wise friends. They reminded me that, after all, God is still in heaven, and He's not shocked to suddenly find out that I am struggling down here. He's hasn't been asleep at the wheel, and I can trust him in this area of my life, just like all others.  When I remembered this, I put it back in perspective.  This is, after all, not life or death. It is important to me, but not, in the big scheme of things, earth shattering.  Trust. Let it go.
Thirdly, I think sometimes we struggle just before a breakthrough. Our artistic growth chart is a series of rises, leveling off, and maybe a slump or two, before it heads back up .... so, maybe this funk is the precursor to
WORLD CLASS ART!
Hey, I can always hope!

So, the opening is tonight, and this is the final painting I'm delivering to the gallery. Last minute, still wet, of course!  This is "not quite finished", as I have to re-draw in the faces of the two little girls on the vase, but needed to let the undercoat dry a little before doing it.. it is incredibly small detail and impossible to do if it's wet underneath.

I used transparent glazes for all the design on this vase. First I painted the background color, basically a beige. Just flat color for the light and shadow of the vase. Then, because this design was so intricate (and that's what attracted me to this vase in the antique shop!) I let that first color completely dry.  Then, with a small rigger, I outlined the drawing details on the vase, trying to simulate the stylized image as it really was.  Once this outline was dry, I glazed in very thin color, mixed with tons of medium, almost like a watercolor wash.  

Once that was completely dry, then I was able to add the blips of highlights and a tiny bit of shading to the edges to complete it.  This is not my usual way of working, but I liked the scene on this vase, and wanted to

do it justice.  I did enjoy this process - very slow and concentrated effort, and rather calming actually.

Of course, then the flowers made me want to swear, so goodbye calming!  It's done (or nearly) and I'm happy with the overall effort. Most especially, I like the color harmony in this piece.  The ladies at the flower shop will be happy - I spent alot of time there picking out just the right hue for the flowers!