In the blogs that I have done so far, I have mainly talked about my anxiety and how I deal with it rather than talking about my art. I figured this post would be about a few important lessons that I learned while painting last week. My husband and I have an agreement where each week, we have time to ourselves. We rotate who stays home and who has the car. Last week was my week to be out of the house for quality time with myself, although I didn’t stay out long. I came home and went to the patio to paint. I had watched a Bob Ross episode over spring break and thought I would try some of the techniques for creating a sunset. As I was painting, I realized my sunset was looking really good. I had nearly perfectly blended the orange, yellow and reds together where it looked like the sun. I should have stopped there but I didn’t. 

Lesson #1: Know when to stop blending. 

There is such a thing as too much blending. Instead of stopping when I liked the blending and thought it was really good, I kept going thinking I wasn’t done for some reason. Soon, the red and yellow ran together to make even more orange. I had completely lost the bright white spot at the center of the sun and it no longer had the round feature to it. I attempted to save it. I added light blue, dark blue and purple to the background for the sky. At first it was good. Then the blue ran together with the yellow on the side of the canvas and made an ugly green color. Again, I tried to save it. With a different brush, I tried to cover up the ugly green color with a darker blue or the purple. This is when I should have just started over. 

Lesson #2: Know when to stop! Period! 

I had messed up the painting. I should have just stopped there and allowed it to dry. Perhaps that is another lesson to be learned. Allow the paint to dry before you start blending other colors. I did not want to admit that I had messed up. I felt really frustrated and just wanted to fix it to where it would be better, like it had been when I started. I was determined to fix it. So I kept going. Whenever something is messed up in a drawing, I can just erase it. Painting is completely different. There is no erasing with painting. Or wiping off. I tried. It didn’t work out too well. So, to fix the ugly green color that had now become a big stain on my canvas, I drew a tree on the right side of the canvas.  I wasn’t sure what else to draw on the left side, so I drew an identical tree. If one thing good has come out of this painting, it is that I have gotten better at painting trees. I know where to put highlights, lowlights, how to do the trunk and branches and even how to do different shapes for the leaves. I can really make it my own. Now I wasn’t so frustrated any more because I had something I could look at that I liked. It took me a little bit to do the trees and get them the way I thought they should be. Once they were done, I was happy with it. At least the trees. The background was still a problem. 

Lesson #3: It is okay to walk away from a project. Especially if you are frustrated.

For some reason, I thought I had to keep going. For some reason I felt as if I was not finished yet or that I could not stop until I was finished. This made me frustrated. The background frustrated me. The lack of creativity in the painting frustrated me. The fact that art was frustrating that night frustrated me. I use art to relax and chill out from the day and everything that is going on. Yet that was the farthest thing from where I was emotionally with this painting. I kept going. I added dark green and black for the ground and realized I liked how I had done the grass and moss going up the trees. My husband had made a few suggestions on how to try to fix the background and so I tried them. They did not work.

At this point, I was left with the painting that you see in the cover image and feeling really irritated and annoyed with myself. I started to beat myself up over it. I put the painting on the easel in the dinning room and went to bed. It is actually still sitting there. I still am not completely sure what I am going to do with it. I have an idea to change the sun to a moon and add some pink and white into the painting. I also have the thought to completely paint over it with black or white and do something else. The problem is I really like the trees. I eventually stopped beating myself up. Once I realized the lessons I had learned at least. I need to actually take the time to slow down and learn techniques for creating a sun or sky or landscapes even.

I often move too fast, even in my art, and expect results immediately. I have found that that is also what our society expects. We go 90 miles an hour all day long for seven days a week and we end up wondering why we are so burnt out at our job or with our family or with our lives in general. along with these three lessons, this painting has taught me to slow down and stop. It is okay to stop. It is okay to take time for yourself. It is okay to rest. Genesis 2 says that God created the earth in 6 days. On the 7th day, God rested.  “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Genesis 2:2-3) God did not rest because he needed to. He rested to show us what we need to do. We are not like God in the fact that we do not need rest. We absolutely need rest and we do not get enough of it. This week, I challenge you to find time to rest. Try it for 30 minutes, an hour or even just 5 minutes. It is something we have to work at. It may feel strange at first. I know it still feels weird to me to sit and do nothing but sometimes it is what we need. Give it a try.