Painting My Story

AUGUST

Earlier this year I finished an online painting course called Paint Your Story (PYS) with Mindy Murphy Lacefied. PYS is my second painting e-course this year in my quest to bring painting back into my life. Let me tell you that it was a great investment! This class was designed to challenge us to let go, be messy and rule free in order to create a colorful random design for our background then to add a a character on top! Sounds easy right?  

Messy, Messy

As a child it's fun to get messy and scribble out a work of art, if not a masterpiece, within a short while. Not only that but how-ever it looked we were proud of it, willing to share it, and give it away. But as an adult it's difficult to embrace 'mistakes' and accept imperfect as perfectly fine. Making art that has the carefree-messiness-on-purpose look is actually a huge challenge and so is getting messy...

Let Go...

PYS helped me along to feel a bit more comfortable with getting messy and gain confidence in saying "it's ugly AND I love it!" I'm glad I took this class because I learned a lot of things I would have not figure out on my own. Just look at these pieces I made, using chalks, within the first couple weeks of taking PYS! To me they look like a child has made them and that's the point! So, this is not a bad start.

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Finding a voice

It's been stressful for me to want to paint and not be able to for fear of making something that isn't beautiful. I needed to learn to let go of the idea of perfect and embrace the reality of what I am creating. Thank goodness Mindy is teaching us that the messier the better and the uglier it is the more lovable it becomes! I remember there was a time that I made all kinds of free flowing art without self judgement or worrying about what someone else thinks. I was wishing I had some of my earlier art so I can see what I was up to but sadly I don't. I do have art from other youngsters somewhere though.... but what I really wanted to do is to tap into that creative momentum I once had again. Now what I had to do is to find my 7 year old self...... =)

And there she is! For the PYS class I found a photo of my 7 year old self in order to reconnect with her and to ask her to be my Muse and work with me to create carefree, fun, experimental, messy art, embrace all the colors I wanted to use no matter if they went together or not and to scribble marks on a page if I wanted. Using my left hand or my right hand - anything goes! Flowing with all of this on my journey to develop my own unique creative voice. 

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Things to remember

I have to remember that if I truly don't like something it can easily be painted over, papered over or torn up and used in another painting. PYS teaches that there are no mistakes in experimenting with color, line and form. The story of the painting is told through the layers. The process of creating is as important as the outcome. The point is to express ourselves not to impress others. Taking photos along the way can be helpful. Sometimes the results are impressive sometimes they're scary. It's difficult to know what is waiting to be expressed... Continuing to paint through difficult times, emotions or struggles can help you get into a meditative state of mind and the art just happens intentional or not... and that's pretty fun!

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Doodle!

We were encouraged to practice doodling! Here's one doodle page I did, early on in the course, in color markers on top of an acrylic paint and oil pastel background. I'm trying to get messy but I'm really reserved and restrained so I'll need to keep at it to get to that place of pure messy bliss but this is a great start. I really love the colors and the elements... 

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When I learned about PYS I thought that it really was a great idea for me to take a class that would encourage me to rediscover the joy of creating by creating. The exercises that Mindy provided helped me begin to bridge the gap to my creative right brain and reconnect with my inner child, for it was she, who had fun creating simply to feel a crayon in her hand and be happy to make marks, doodles and scribbles. And it will be that version of me who I wish to reconnect with and join hands in making fun art! Can't believe I ever forgot to keep that part of me going but I did and now that I'm getting back in touch with my creative Muse I'm hoping to keep in tune with her.

The practice of art doesn't have to make sense and learning not to judge myself for making a practice page that was cluttered, crowded and messy was and still is difficult for me but I'm glad I made the effort! It's like doing stretches before exercising to help loosen muscles...doodling helps loosen up the creative side.

Mark making: left page done with my left hand & the right page done with my right hand.
Not simultaneously... haha... although that would be awesome...
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Playing with weird head shapes, filling in features and practicing with color & shading...

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15 minute challenge

One challenge was to select one head shape from our weird head shape sketches and quickly paint a character using it, spending no more than 15 minutes on it. The key was to work quickly and not over-think it. I chose to do this challenge in watercolors. 

When I look at it I see that the less time spent on a small painting like this the better! It turned out to be a more truly right brained work of art. It's like a rough sketch in color, the over-all essence of a girl holding a bird is there and she's a wonderful character. Had I set out to paint her 'just so' without a time limit she'd have been quite different. Maybe I'll re-do this challenge a few more times over the year just to see how my painting skills and style are developing. Won't that be fun!

Setting a time limit may be one way I can help myself from not over thinking or over working a painting. I look at her now and I know this painting is not perfect and could list all the flaws but I want to listen to my 7 year old self and she say's "it's done!" "it's perfect!" I created what needed creating at that moment and now I'm moving on!

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A few more paintings...

I used what skills and confidence I gained through the PYS class and made a few more pictures using Mindy's techniques.

Mr. Moonlight

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Mon Petite Chou 

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Bear

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Cupcake Dreams

This one, Cupcake Dream, is one of my favorite mixed media collages that I've made to date! 

The original of this has been SOLD...  And the first one, Mr.Moonlight, was also SOLD at an art show I participated in this summer at the Red Star Mill. From what the buyer told me it was going to be hung in a nursery for a little boy! How cute is that?  =)

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I hope...

I'm hoping to be posting all of the original pictures you've seen in this blog post, with the exception of Mr. Moonlight & Cupcake Dream which have been sold, for sale to my Etsy shop sometime before the end of the year.... =)

I'd also like to be able to offer prints of all of these, so I'm looking into my options, and hope to figure this all out before the year is up... Anyone with tips or suggestions please contact me! Right now I do have a bunch of my art on some products at Zazzle... I guess I could always go the route of selling one of a kind paintings without prints... I'll have a think on it.

Enjoy the sunshine,

Stephie

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