Thoughts From Marsha

Flying By the Seat of Your Pants Maybe?

If you do something creative … like me and my creating paintings … you deal many times with the idea of "what do I paint today?"

What interests me will always have the biggest impact on what I would like to paint. I believe if you are doing anything creative, you must follow your gut or as some call it, your intuition.

I grew up roaming the small town I live in, and being outdoors most of every day … when not in school or cleaning up my room at home. Of course we have things that must be done before we have our "free" time to play.

I had a sister that went almost everywhere with me as a child. I had friends that lived within walking distance. We had woods and creeks we could play in and yards to play badminton, or croquet, or a school yard to play kick ball or play on the swings.

So first is what do you love?
I have students that ask me how we figure out where our interests come from and how do I decide what I want to paint. My reply is always asking questions about what they love. What would they do if they have all the money and free time they needed.

Travel is usually one of the things most will answer. Well okay … but where and what is the location you would want to visit? Are you interested in seeing the tropics or the wild west, or if you are interested in historical places, or do you want to hike? Where you travel probably equates to what you would want to paint if that is your creative outlet.

It isn't just the places we would travel that gives a clue but some other daily things or ways we would spend our days. Think maybe along the lines of would you give your time to helping others in some way? Then maybe you like to photograph people and would paint them.

Would you love to take a course in cooking or gardening? Then painting or collage, or sculpting, or flower arranging would be our outlet. Would you like to write a book, or build a garden shed?

This type of questioning gives me a clue of what turns them on in life. It should give the person clues about what they would like to draw or paint if that is your outlet, as well as the way when not creating, how they would spend their time.

You cannot divorce your daily life, or how you grew up, from what you do when you paint or create.

Find some group that does the type of thing you may be interested in. Attend meetings, or try out a small course in that interest. But … and this is a big thought … don't give up when it is harder than you thought! You have to do the bad stuff that is in your painting before it gets easier and better.

I know I am talking about creating paintings because that is my main creative outlet. I also love gardening. And, as you may realize, I like writing about the journey of being an artist as well.

I believe we all have creativity in us. There is a place within us where it comes from … that what we do in our free time comes from. Learning to tap into our inner places we love, the intuition that comes from our life experiences, is the key to getting beyond the "thinking" part of doing the work.

There are times when I have a student I tell them: "Back away from the easel. Now close your eyes and remember the scene. Do you feel the sun? Are there birds chirping? Do you hear music if you are painting someone playing a piano? Envision the area your working on and how it would look in your mind's eye. Now go up and make a few marks. Then do it again."

This method reminds the student of the important stuff and it takes away all the extra that is not needed in the painting. You remember what is important and forget the details. This is tapping into your inner thoughts and possibly your intuition. You get to ask yourself "what if I did this?"

Trying something is the only way to learn to do it. Trying it again maybe in a different way is how we learn more and get better.

As my words above mention… it might look like I am flying by the seat of my pants as the saying goes.

I am tapping into my inner reserve, my built up memories and feelings.

This is where the good stuff comes from!

I'm always interested in what you think about things I write. Hopefully they will help you with your own journey in art ... and maybe in life as well.