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Writer's picturecarolyn land

Creative Spirit Blog January 16, 2025 Painting From the Inside Out


From Earths Core Mixed Media


"Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen" Robert Besson

 

I am having a solo show this month.  So far it has been a huge success.  As I hung it a big question loomed in the air.  What are you going to do after this? 


I have been tossing around the idea of doing something different creatively but am not sure what.  The show is a retrospective of my work inspired by nature, so it shows a variety of work from various periods.  We grow and change.


I was hoping the sales would be from one style or period so I could use that information to formulate new ideas.  But it did not work that way.  Something sold from every period and not only that, half of the work sold was realistic, my pastel over watercolor work, and half was abstract. Even my new metal series sold.  Every buyer and viewer is different.  They connect to a feeling that is unique to them

  

After I hung the show, I walked around and took stock of everything. Then I had this moment when I thought “I did this”!  Where did it come from? Then I realized…nothing I had hanging had ever been planned, other than the editing of the realistic source material for my pastel work.


Something I see in nature moves me and takes over.  I preach to my student to stop planning your work. What you see in your head is not going to look the same on the paper. Paint from the inside out.  Paintings evolve from the act of painting. 


However, there are a few things I do when I start, before I know what is going to happen.  I set down a framework and three values.  I pick materials I would like to work with, but they often change, and I pick colors I would like to work with, but they may change also.


It’s after I have spent a good amount of time painting, enjoying the process and the feel of the material, and being in that state of flow, that I step back and look and contemplate the compositional merits of what I have done. It needs dark here or a few lines there, and I want to make this area more important because that will give me a center of interest.  Then maybe if I repeat a little of this color here the viewer will see this part better. 


I am not talking here about illustration or technical drawing.  I am talking about "creating feeling” in a “fine art” painting.  About putting our feelings about something meaningful to us, in our work, by letting it emerge as we go. By being in the moment.  Our actions and awareness merge so that our painting paint themselves.


We let go of our ego, give ourselves permission to create rubbish, focus on the task and enjoy the process. This opens our channel to creativity. We worry about the details later. Being in the moment, being in the state of flow enhances our creativity and allows us to express feelings.


"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong" Joseph Chilton Pearce


People buy and appreciate paintings because they connect to a feeling they get when they see it.  It could be the subject, the color, the texture. Something has to speak to them.  Create work from the inside out. Paint what you feel, what touched your soul.


“Risk a glorious failure”, and enjoy the process.  Carolyn

 

 

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