motivation Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Friday’s Photo on Saturday

Fighting resistance with everything I have this week. Sometimes I win. Sometimes Mr. Resistance wins.
What’s with that?

If you give in to it, low motivation can last longer than you would like and that just can’t happen anymore. I don’t have time to waste, so Mr. Resistance needs to get kicked out the door. He overs stays his not-so-welcome welcome every now and then.

Two of these shells were collected on one of the last great beach days a little while ago. The cracked smaller shell you have seen before. The watercolors were out, the shells and the paper ready, and I had the time so I pushed through the fog to paint. Twenty minutes later and I was done.

I tried to use only as much water as would allow the paints to flow so I could continue and finish without waiting for it to dry. I think I figured out how much water to keep on the brush. I also think I need better brushes. I was using synthetic brushes, but I went back to using sable. I like the way the paint flows and the point might be more pleasing. A visit to the art supply store may be in order, just to get some info.

These shells were similar in color and value so I needed to establish the ground there were sitting on by throwing on some color. I think it adds a little something and perks up the whiteness. You get the idea.

Already Off Schedule

“The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy”
~ Robert Burns(Scottish national Poet of Scotland, who wrote lyrics and songs in the Scottish dialect of English. 1759-1796)

Here I go again, but it’s not my doing, sort of. I need to confess I never got to paint and not going to get to it until I have a free moment. Painting will have to wait. Family obligations come first.

The funny part is that poor apple is starting to get old! I keep it out with the shell bits so if I have time I can just paint. If I put the apple in the refrigerator, I have to fish it out to work which might hamper the motivation. It’s a whole thing.

On the bright side, the weekend is coming up. Will I or won’t I paint? That is the question.

The Din of the Light Bulb Moment

In reading the latest of The Artist’s Way books, Walking in This World by Julia Cameron, I had a light bulb moment. Yes, that weird feeling when suddenly things seem very clear. I could feel a “pop” go off in my head. I looked up and around me with a start. You know the feeling when things seem to come together and make perfect sense? That sometimes happens slowly, like a gradual awakening, the fog slowly lifting and you say to yourself, “Yeah, I see. I get it.” No, that’s not what happened to me. I had a rush, boom, clang, got hit on the head moment. Ouch!

Before you think I lost my mind, I should explain. As I’ve been stuck in resistance lately and I had put off the latest Artist’s Way course book, I decided it was time to re-direct, take a U-turn and pick up where I left off. I’ve been very good about writing the morning pages, not so good at keeping up with artist’s dates, but here and there doing small things to stay in the loop: looking at old work, fussing with that bagpipe work, knitting on socks, ordering yarn. Yesterday I picked up the course book and started reading again.

Chapter 3 is about discovering a sense of adventure to gain a greater feeling of freedom and open mindedness. One of the tasks was called Draw Yourself to Scale. Interesting, I thought. The task involves sketching. Nice and easy, right? To paraphrase: “Sketch each moment and enter adventure..The coffee mug, the doctor’s office..Don’t need to sketch well. The adventure of life rushes past us in a blur. Velocity is the culprit. Velocity and pressure. A sketchbook freezes time and is a form of meditation to focus on every moment.” And here I was thinking I had to sketch myself.

CLICK! The light bulb over my head popped really loud!

A couple of months ago I bought a teeny sketchpad and filled my old rapidograph with ink. I don’t like to carry a large handbag for the weight of it, but okay, the one I have right now can fit a few things. So there’s the sketchbook and pen, handy and ready. When I had some time, and no knitting with me, I’d pop out my things and doodle. Most of the time I forgot I had them with me in my bag.

POP! Light bulb! I have doodled waiting at the doctor’s office! CLICK! I drew a little girl in my teeny book after allergy shots in the waiting room! SNAP! I pulled out the little book last week at a coffee salon and sketched the live musicians while my company sipped their coffee! I’m in the loop after all! Where I thought I was out of the game, I really wasn’t. Maybe I was coasting along the whole time? If I hadn’t read this chapter I may have continued thinking I was still in resistance mode. Talk about synchronicity! Things were just falling into place of their own accord. Could it be I just wasn’t really paying attention to myself?

Boy, that was some light bulb.

Today is the Ides of March, I’ll Paint Tomorrow

“A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March” ~ Brutus to Caesar, Act I, Scene II from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

We arsty types always enjoyed acknowledging the fact that today, March 15th, is the Ides of March. Thoroughly enjoyed pointing it out. I don’t know why, but anyone I knew who was an artist made a big thing about the Ides. So there it is, I’m continuing the tradition. I used to tell this to my sons every year, very cryptically, “Beware the Ides of March.” They’d look at me as if I had two heads. Was it me? I don’t know.

That said, let’s get on with it.

This weekend was horrible, crazy, scary weather. Saturday saw a nor’easter that seems to be historic now that it’s over. Sunday wasn’t great either with rain, thunder, lightening and flooding in areas. I burrowed in my cave, so to speak. I spent Sunday photographing some new jewelry I made, a couple of older paintings, and dug up my color charts. Looking through my work gave me ideas and motivation. It’s good to dig out old stuff every now and then.

I had put the bagpipe painting on my easel to look at it whenever I came into the studio. I like to do that with works in progress. It gives me a feel for where I need to go with a piece. The light in the studio may be out for good now, but I ignored it, turned on my desk light and did a little work on the painting.

Each work teaches you something new. With this painting I learned that the style I’m used to working with in oils may not be the right way to work in watercolors or I need a more durable surface. Painting as with oils, I kept adding to certain areas with color. Maybe it’s the paint, but I think the paper is wearing on those areas and making little balls of something. Maybe watercolor is not meant for much reworking? Am I using too much water? The paper is Lanaquarelle 140lb cold press and usually fine to work with, but would Arches paper do the same thing? Answers come with doing so I’m just going to keep working.

Overall, I’m painting, and I like the mood of this piece. Maybe I should have worked this in oils? It’s possible I will paint it again. I have another photograph with a different position I could try in the future. The chiarasciuro, darks and lights, is what I really like and it may be worth another go in another medium. For now this just needs a little tweaking for me to say I’m done.

Not touching this painting today, though. It’s the Ides of March and important things are better left until another day.

The War of Art

While on my latest Artist’s Date at Barnes and Noble Booksellers I came across a book I’ve been hearing about titled The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Since reading and using The Artist’s Way series to try to figure out why I have such a hard time going to the studio, this other book kept popping up. Seeing it at the book store felt like it was meant to come home with me. Even though I really enjoy borrowing books from the library, this one in particular was one I wanted to own. I know this kind of book is the kind that I need to go back to pages to re-read, crease the spine, pencil in notes in the margins, a well used book.

When I opened the book to skim through at the store I knew it was for me. Same idea as in The Artist’s Way, but more in the style of New York City street talk. Tough and to the point language. The Artist’s Way is a more cerebral, ethereal, methodical, useful course, which I am totally enjoying and it’s working for me. The War of Art is plain in the sense that in way fewer words and pages, it lays it all out in straight out English. It’s a quick kick in the pants to get you in the creative mode, fast. Boom!

The author, Steven Pressfield, has written The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Gates of Fire, among other books. In this book he’s talking about the artist having a hard time sitting down to do their art. He calls it Resistance and his book is about the secret to overcoming it. Resistance is what keeps us separated from our calling, whatever that happens to be. He asks why do we have to hear the doctor say “You have six months to live” to do all the things we always wanted to do in life?

Why “does Resistance have to cripple and disfigure our lives before we wake up to its existence?”

“If tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the directory would be out of business. Prisons would stand empty. The alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse, along with the junk food, cosmetic surgery, and infotainment businesses, not to mention pharmeceutical companies, hospitals, and the medical profession from top to bottom. Domestic abuse would become extinct, as would addictions, obesity, migraine headaches, road rage, and dandruff.”

Mind you, this is just the introduction! This is going to be a fun read I can tell you that right now. It’s a take no prisoners, no B.S., sharp as a tack approach to the artist’s block.

Taking these two different approaches together, I think, is going to be powerful. I’ll let you know how it goes as I continue reading this. Wish me luck!

Yes I Can

With yesterday’s post in mind about going into the studio for 15 minutes, I did just that. Luck was with me and the stupid light in the studio was working.

Going into the studio, I decided to look at the latest cherry blossoms painting I was playing with. The first one is over and done. I don’t think I can do anything else to it because, firstly, I’m over it, and secondly, I’ll just over do it. I signed it and I’m done. The second watercolor needed a little definition in the flowers and I worked on that until I was done with it, too. Signed, done.

On my desk is a couple of print-outs of my son playing a traditional Greek bagpipe. He had a YouTube video of music he was practicing and I just loved the look of it. To me it was so Rembrandt, all chiaraschuro like. Bright light against deep darks. I liked that moody look and printed out some frames, with his permission of course. I sketched out the basic subject and lines for the background on watercolor paper. This would probably be a better oil painting than a watercolor, but hey, the watercolors are out so that’s what I’m going to use. If I don’t like it, I can paint another one in oils, which I probably will do.

I didn’t want to plunge right in with color just yet. I need a tube of New Gamboge that I’ve used before for painting skin color in watercolor. It’s just a nice soft color and adding shadows to it is easy. So I’m off to Pearl Paint today to see what brands they have in this color. Forgot about it when I was there last week for the 50% off sale.

It’s amazing how an idea like doing something for only 15 minutes can wake you up and charge the batteries. I’m going to make this my little Artist’s Date for the week.

You have to take the motivation where you can get it and run!

Shopping for Motivation

The Pearl Paint Art Supply in my neighborhood is having a sale of 50% off everything in the store. Are they going out of business? I asked the sales people, but they said no one told them anything. Looks like going out to me if they’re selling to the bare walls. That much off is a good sale, even better than buying online which is usually cheaper. Pearl’s prices are high first of all, and lately they were trying to compete with Michael’s Crafts, which turned me off. If I want craft stuff I can go to Michael’s. I want a quality art supplier when it comes to art stuff.

Well, I picked up a large pastel pad, a couple tubes of MaimieriBlu watercolors, and quite a few half pans of Windsor&Newton watercolors for my travel set. They had some semi-precious stones I liked and for half price I bought a couple. I spent enough yesterday. Paint is expensive. I need to go back another day to get a Vyco cover for my desk. Next week is soon enough unless they close the doors tomorrow which didn’t look like it was happening.

Feeling empowered after my art supply shopping spree, and relaxed from my little tantrum, I got down to business. Amazingly, the light was working in my studio yesterday. I took my purchases to my desk to take inventory of my supplies. I have some older tubes of watercolor that I need to use up. I thought I used up my watercolor paper, but forgot about the cherry blossoms work that was still attached to the block. I’m not sure if I’m done with it, but I took it off the block anyway. Since it was there, bare, and looking at me I found another photo of the blossoms from the swipe file and there I was penciling it onto the paper. Soon as I did that and took some pics, I was filling my water cups, dipping the brush and throwing paint on the paper! Wow, how did that happen?

Knowing myself I stopped before I made a mess of things. Watercolor is not very forgiving, in my opinion. I could take it too far, and then that’s it! So I left it and decided to organize my bead supplies. There I was stringing a couple of bracelets! I finished one and need some findings for the other, but I worked on two pieces. I just need to photograph the finished piece and shop online or in person for the needed findings for the second bracelet.

All in all, yesterday was an amazingly productive day. I’m still in shock that it all went so well! I better be careful and not mess up the momentum today.