Just do it!

I was listening to an awesome podcast and James was like,” go back to the basics of pencil, paper, your brain, and your voice.”

I’ve been sketching and this week I will have the wonderful task of cleaning up my files. My digital files are all over the place. Most of the work is practice. I started a pile of ideas that I don’t necessarily want to redo but I want to take my time with. The above sunflowers are a mess but I was stamping with a cat’s tongue brush and that led to stamping with the handle of the brush. The color and blending need work but that’s what practice is for. These are the gems that build momentum.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned this week.

What do I want to say? Why do I paint?

I was looking for a catchy phrase. I doodled. I went for a thoughtful walk. Nothing. It went on for days. Suddenly the right words popped into my head. I paint flowers. I paint nature. I paint how nature makes me feel. It works!

If you want to sell art stop creating for the shop. Just make art.

Your best ideas happen when you are doing the work. Practice. Start with the basics. Play. Have fun. Repeat. I literally sat surrounded by my high-quality paint and beautiful color but nothing was happening. I haven’t painted in days. I’ve been sketching with a pencil and paper. I have tons of ideas. I’m at a good place. Usually, the story begins with an I just drew to relieve stress.

Play is for children

We are all children. We can take blocks and build towers, houses, boats, the letter U and fly an airplane. This was a kindergarten class by the way. These students just picked up blocks and played. I need to stop saying I don’t know how to draw or I can’t draw that and just draw. My purple ink sketches came from me. I didn’t reference photos or google.

Ok so now I’m going to go draw a peony from shapes. I tried to sketch the actual shapes and that wasn’t working. Oh, but observing and making the flower my own works!

Siempre,

Mireya