It’s now the end of week two of my residency and I am having a blast! I cannot believe how much work I have gotten done in such a short amount of time. I started with the goal to get four paintings done this month. One that was half done, and three new paintings. It seemed slightly impossible at the beginning, but I thought it was a great way to push myself. Well, it turns out that I’m slightly crazier than I thought, because now that I have finished the one that was half started, I have decided that I can throw in another unfinished piece into the mix. Yup, you heard me, five paintings, four weeks. I can do this!
Now usually it takes me forever to finish a painting so I have gone about things different than usual. My usual process is filled with frustration, self doubt/criticism, lots of procrastination, and the occasional enjoyable flow. I decided this year would be different. I am going to have a more positive art practice and really enjoy the process. Listening to hours of art podcasts and being honest with myself, helped me come up with a game plan to put into action.
I was putting too much pressure on myself and my paintings. I was expecting every painting to turn out exactly how I imagined it. I was too critical of everything I was doing and letting that nasty voice pipe in and add it’s two cents. I wasn’t allowing myself to just create. It has been so freeing to remind myself I don’t paint for the final product, I paint for the enjoyment. It’s so simple, but easily forgotten.
Things that have been helping break my bad habits.
1.Tight deadline.
Obviously trying to get five paintings done in four weeks leaves little time for procrastination, and self doubt. When my inner critic wants to pipe up, I have to tell him, “Sorry, I’m busy, leave a message and we’ll talk later”. It seems to shut him up for the time being, and I’m able to get work done.
2. Multiple pieces going at the same time
I have always tried to work on more than one painting at a time, but I wasn’t very good at it. I would mainly have two going at the same time, but they would still be pretty disconnected. I will say after having five going at once, I don’t think I could go back to my old ways. I love having my paintings come to life together. It’s also incredibly satisfying to see so much progress.
3. Using a timer
I decided to set a timer to help me focus and track the time I spend working in the studio. It’s great when I don’t really want to get started. I set a timer for 30 minutes and before I know it it’s been an hour. It also helps me be less precious. I give myself tasks that would normally take me 45 minutes to an hour and try and complete it in 30 minutes. It doesn’t always happen, but it does help.
4. Being open to change what is not working
When it comes to resistance, my biggest problems are the feeling of wasted time and ruining what is working.
For instance, one of the paintings I am working on was started probably a year ago, but I couldn’t get it to fit compositionally how I wanted on the panel. I tried reworking it a few times, it didn’t help. Then I heard of some people adding on a panel to already existing works, so I figured I would give it a try. So I built an additional panel that would fit perfectly. I was excited to finally get this painting laid out and allow it to finally get made. When I went to work, it still just wasn’t working. Now normally I would try and force it until it worked out because I didn’t want to waste all the time I had already put into it.
This time I decided I would separate the two panels and scrap the original panel and restart it on the newer panel. (One of the reasons I was even willing to try it was that I had very little on the smaller panel so if I decided to go back, my original drawing would be there untouched.) Well I’m so glad I did it. It came together so easily, and compositionally how I wanted. I would have saved a lot of time if I hadn’t been so concerned about wasting that time.
Secondly, I tend to hold myself back with the fear that I will ruin my paintings by changing things that aren’t quite working. Seriously. I know it’s silly. I finally got to the point where I knew I needed to take the risk in order for myself and my work to grow. After all, what's the worst that could happen? I could run out of a mixed color and not be able to do a touch up. Yes! I could make it worse? Yes! Well that’s about it. So I decided I needed to throw that fear aside and just paint. If it ends up terrible, no one has to see it and I can paint over it. How much a difference it has made in my practice.
5.Working in layers
I am used to working in layers, but this time I went into it with a different perspective. It comes back to not allowing myself to get too precious. If it still wasn’t quite right I told myself “it’s okay I’ll just go over it with another layer.” Are you kidding me? Who is this person and where has she been. She’s so cool and relaxed. I know I can’t believe it.
6. Staying positive
This has been crucial. Without positive thought about myself, my process and my work, nothing would be going as well as it is. It is essential.
Happy painting!