Landscape! Work in Progress

the promised landscape poll result painting

10" x 14" watercolor (detail)

Finally, here is the landscape that won the 'what should I paint next?' poll a few months ago. Still a work in progress at this point, but coming along.

I've only ever painted one other landscape and it was a big, huge, ugly disaster. So I approached this one with more than a little fear.

But, once I started painting, the fear left and I realized that it's not the subject that was scary, but the idea in my heart that I would fail. Again.

It reminded me that it doesn't really matter what your subject is, a portrait, flower, horse, or even a landscape, what matters is how you see your subject.

Harley Brown said, "I don't know the first thing about a horse's hind end, but I can draw it. A cowboy, or an artist, or anyone, can look at my drawing and say, 'That Harley really knows his horses!'

I don't know horses. I just know how to observe a horse.'"

The man is truly a genius. :)

This is what I tell myself when I'm trying to think myself out of the fear of failure at the easel:

All it takes to remove the fear when you approach your next work is your ability to observe. You are an artist! You know how to observe! You've done it millions of times.

Stop overthinking it.

Stop worrying about that barn and field and just paint what you see. It's really just a rectangle and some abstract shapes.

You can paint that. Because you are an ARTIST.

Now, dear friends, you must tell me. . .

Am I the only one that gives themselves motivational pep talks?

Sure hope not.

Why do I paint? Why do you Create?

work in progress "Peek"

8 x 10 watercolor

     Today I was talking to a friend about being a mom, she is married but they don't have kids yet.  I was saying how hard it is for me to take time to do things that I love, because I feel so guilty about taking time away from my family when there are a hundred other things clamouring for my attention. She said that it must be hard to do that when you have kids and I agreed that yes it certainly is, but it's one of those things you just can't know about until you go through it yourself. When I was pregnant with my first child everyone, and I mean everyone, told me I would never have a good night's sleep again, that my husband and I would never go on a date again and that life as I knew it would never be the same again. But what no one ever told me was how instantly and powerfully I would be in love with my new baby.  I admit the strength of that emotion took me by surprise, I knew I would love that baby and already loved him through the pregnancy.  But when I first held that brand new irreplaceable soul in my arms my life was changed, the best change of my life. I had never felt such instant and powerful love before, so the lost sleep and fewer date nights weren't that big a deal, not when the reason for those was such a precious, loved little thing.
      So that conversation got me thinking about my art.  Why do I paint? Because I love to, because I love to try and express just a little how much I love my children, how they are my whole world.  And because it makes me happy and you know what they say about Mama being happy.  So I try to convey that through my work, I try to show how I feel in every piece that I do.  I try to put a little bit of my soul, so to speak, in each painting.  Hopefully others feel that, but if not that's ok, because I do and that's the most important thing. I think that's why it's so scary to put your work out there whether it be art, writing, photography, or whatever you do. Because you risk others not appreciating what you have sweated blood for, pouring your whole heart into it.  It takes courage, and I think that all mothers have crazy amounts of courage. You just have to because those little ones, dearer to you than your own life, need you to.  Here are two of my favorite quotes about motherhood and art, every time I read them they lift me up and make me try a little harder.
". . . the artist brings courage. Painting something important to you just because you care about it, regardless of whether anyone else will think it matters - that is painting with courage. . . it takes courage to share your vision with the world." Carole Katchen 

"You have nothing in this world more precious than your children.  When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out. It will not be the money you have made. It will not be the cars you have owned. It will not be the large house in which you live. The searing question that will cross your mind again and again will be, How well have my children done?"  President Gordon B. Hinckley

work in progress untitled

colored pencil

So here are a few works in progress I've been working on lately, not much done so far, but coming along. Feel free to comment on why you create, I'd love to hear it. :)