New Day...

#start over #fresh start #blankpage #new #days #goals #art #prints #process

Well, if you read my New Years post you will have seen I had a long list of "to do's" and goals. I wanted to accomplish them,..... like yesterday! .. a few weeks ago I was thinking in my sleep (yes, that is when I do a lot of good thinking !) and I realised I was feeling a bit stressed and frustrated that I had not accomplished many of my goals for the year - by the first 4 weeks!.. I think something may be a little off with my perspective of practically how I thought I would accomplish all that - by now!... the list seemed to be looming over me, and yelling "you have not done hardly any of these things!"....... THEN I had a lightbulb moment.. this litany of things I had not accomplished didn't matter. In fact, it was stopping ANY creativity that may have been brewing... at all.. I just saw this big TO DO list..

It was then that I decided to give myself a break! In my head there was now a blank piece of paper being presented to me and the sense of these words "scrap the list! just scrap it!...start over. Its a new day..."

The beautiful blank page was in front of me. I now had permission to start over with this mission. Start over and think what did I want to accomplish just today / or this week that would be satisfying and more importantly, realistic!

A little later I was at the laundrettes. I take our nearly-dry-clothes that have been on the rack, to finish off in a blast of heat in the huge drum that fits 3-4 loads... for £1, as our tiny house does not have room for a dryer... So I sat as my washing rumbled around and read an Interior Design magazine that had been left on the bench... A page caught my eye about how to create a Mood board for a new house decor design.. and the title said "It's a marathon, not a Sprint" when it comes to designing the interior of a house. It takes time to chew on colour choices and styles... its not to be done in a rush, as its something you will live with for many years to come..

That resonated with me. Why are we in such a rush to create / to start and finish a project? Many of the things on my list are not things that happen in a day - it's going to be a process. Some of them will be a culmination of a study done over maybe the whole year - such as my Study of Icon Painting and how that will influence my work. I cannot expect to do it all in one day and then produce work from that, the very next day. I need to take a "chill pill" as my kids would often say in their teenage-hood..

So,... A BLANK PAGE is a gift.

I have permission to take some more time to do these things.

I do not want to lose my creative spark in the rush of trying to get projects done and dusted.

But here is what happens a lot with me - I get an inspired thought:

While I was driving one my many journeys to visit my new adorable grandbaby and help her tired mumma - I get to drive through some amazing Shropshire scenery. This time of year gives some dramatic moody skies and crashing bright colours over the rolling landscape. A thought came to mind : oohhh I need to jot down some of these skies and try painting them - or be influenced by them!..

Then I thought, "I can do a painting a day of a sky - a quick one!.".. hang on... what happened to the MARATHON runner?.... ok, so I WILL paint SOME skies... when I find a slot of time... but it may not be every day. I can make a group of SKY work that will just be numbered SKY project #1, #2 etc... and it can run the whole year.. and see what I produce... It's no use setting up myself for failure by making the goals that are unrealistic. Be kind to your self if you do this too!

This is my LITTLE SKY project ... I snapped the photo above, and grabbed a moment somewhere in the day to have a play with trying to capture a moment with paint. I am not trying to replicate the photo - but using it as my inspiration.

One goal I am managing to do is get 6 of my favourite large landscape paintings scanned by a local art printer. They will be printed as Giclee prints to go in the shop and on my Etsy site, and I am also starting a new range of greeting cards. George at Replicolour in Oswestry is being very diligent to colour match beautifully these paintings. The way he treats my work and handles the paintings - he takes such care over them. He also needed me to have given them all names as it will be easier locating them on his filing system when I order prints. There is something very interesting that I had not named every painting. It is like having a baby but not giving it a name for a long time! That would be strange. So these 6 now have proper names and a place in the world .... They will be in the online shops very soon.

I have updated my Etsy site with some fun Fabric boxes I made last year. There are few end of line discounts on some of my giclee prints also: www.joystephanie.etsy.com