What to do with unfinished art?
Hello sweet creative!
As I was packing up and saying farewell to my art studio, one thing kept bothering me: that big, awkward, yellow painting "in progress"... meaning unfinished yet already overworked. Leaning against the wall in a corner of the room, it felt like it was staring right at me.
From two years ago. Two studios away.
And suddenly, I knew I didn't want to take it with me in my new life. Not like this anyway.
So I had two options: put it in the trash, or do something with it. And since you'll never see me throw away an otherwise perfectly good stretched canvas, I had to go with option two.
Then of course, I had another choice to make: cover it up with a full coat of white gesso, or try and make it work? Again, option two made more sense. I mean, there were already layers and layers of paper and paint all over the surface, so why not keep going?
Here are some of the early stages the painting went through. I was challenging myself to use lots of yellow, which I'm not comfortable with...
My original plan was to make a floral painting with a table top and yellow background. That did not work out well...
Mixed feelings
Whenever we feel stuck in our creative process, usually it's not really about the art itself. I mean, I bet that many of you (who love yellow) would have happily kept going from there, and reached the finish line with a beautiful piece.
But the thing is, the more I kept going and following my "plan", the less it felt like me. So what then? Art is not about recreating a picture in your head that may or may not have been inspired by somebody else. This was the case here, as I got the idea from a home decor book and thought: "Yay! Let's do a happy yellow painting! It's going to cheer me up!". Well, it certainly didn't. It got me stuck and not happy at all.
But the more I paint and get stuck and then back in the flow, the more I know that art is about alignment.
It's about reaching in, deep within, and expressing whatever we find in there, the truth of who we are.
And sometimes it takes time. Sometimes we're in denial, or we judge ourselves and instead of painting from our soul, we paint from our people-pleasing ego, always trying to make something "pretty". Then when we fail (of course), we get frustrated and ashamed. We think we'll never make it, we'll never be good enough, the art will never work, so why not throw it away?
I started covering up the yellow with more collage, paint, and journaling, staying true to my floral inspiration. I created a "ribbon" of collage across, thinking it would turn into one of my beloved butterfly paintings... and that's when I got stuck all over again!
Second (and third and more) chances
With mixed media, the magic is in the layers. You can always cover things up and fix whatever's not working. You can even erase some of it with hand sanitizer! And believe it or not, even something overworked can become spontaneous again.
Yesterday, after another few months of stuckness, I took the painting downstairs into my new art space/dining room. By the way, here's my fancy setup right before having lunch with my son! Can you spot the ketchup bottles in the background?
So, I simply started covering things up with more collage, and bigger pieces this time. My first goal was to get rid of that horizontal line of collage across the surface, and add more of my true colors, the ones that really feel like me.
I remembered that from the start, my intention was for this painting to lift my spirits, and I took the time to feel what colors would achieve that for me. I'm keeping some of the yellow, but what I really crave is softness, kindness and a sense of hope...
So that's my compass, as I keep layering in a way that's now much looser and spontaneous, with plenty of lovely pastel tones. I have no plan, no picture in my head. Curiosity is back, playfulness is back. We'll see where this takes me...
If you long to explore your color palette and build your color confidence from the inside out, plus really make art that comes from your authentic soul, I wholeheartedly invite you to join my online class Soulful Abstracts. Or for something shorter, the Mini Abstracts class includes a Color Challenge lesson. Both classes will help you make friends with colors outside of your comfort zone, while staying true to YOU.
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