Do you find yourself tensing up without warning? How do you feel this very minute?
Maybe it's time for you to "take a breath".
I remember what it felt like when I started painting with watercolors twelve years ago. I wasn't always sure what I was doing. Sometimes I would find myself painting simply because I thought I had to keep painting.
It didn't seem to matter that I didn't know where I was going with the painting. I just felt compelled to paint, to "work on it", to keep the movement going.
Then I had a thought. What if I only painted when I knew what to paint? How would that feel? What would my painting look like then?
Painters actually stop from time to time to look at their painting. They stop to see what might be needed. They stop to figure out what they can do to enhance their painting; or maybe even realize that the painting is finished.
It turns out that painting is a lot like life, except painting is done on a much smaller scale.
How do you travel through life? Do you stop to take a breath from time to time? Do you take note of where you are and where you want to be? Paintings, like everything else in life, have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Do you question your next move or do you keep on doing what you are doing day after day ... wondering where you will "end up"?
Students can learn a lot about their lives just by watching the way they apply watercolor to paper. In that way, painting can be a metaphor for our lives.
Art students might be surprised by this thought ... until they do stop to take a breath and look at their painting before they apply their next brush stroke.
Is it time for you to take a breath? Maybe it is time for you to take a painting workshop. I have one workshop left this year on October 20th.
There are two slots open. Is one open just for you?
My next One-day
is on October 20, 2012.
Email me at Patrice@ArtOfAloha.com to register.
$150. includes continental breakfast and lunch, along with personalized instruction between 9:30-3:30.
Patrice Federspiel