Category: procrastination

Plodding in the Painting Process

Everyone comes to their process differently. How an individual weaves their way through the day to come out at the other end with a finished product is as varied as each person’s character and ability.

Some of us plod. Some procrastinate. Others push. And some fly. I wish I could fly.

Me? I plod.

Twyla Tharp wrote about her process in her book The Creative Way, that she needs some little thing to start the process, an action that signals her brain to begin the chain of events that lead to working.

Many artists are working alone and not punching a clock. There is no boss who eyes us if we don’t show up on time. We are our own boss, and as such, might give ourselves the day off if we should so desire.

It’s no surprise that things can quickly fall by the wayside just because we suddenly have the urge to veer off in a direction that has nothing to do with creating our work.

Um, yeah, painting is work. (But don’t ask The Mr. if painting is my work. He’ll frown and look at me sideways.)

My day always has a plan. The to-do list is ready from the night before, but is tweaked first thing in the morning. Painting is always first on that list.

With morning activities done, the family out, and the house finally in order, it’s office time. Emails, updating, uploading, and all things computer related. Then there might be errands. By now it’s noon.

Have I headed to the studio to paint by now? No. I’m plodding through the day, trying to avoid resistance mode.

It can be mid-afternoon by the time I get to the item #1 on the list. I’m still looking for that little action that signals it’s time to get the ball rolling.

This past week I was determined to push, rather than plod, to paint. I cleared my day as fast as I possibly could. The weather was beautiful, but I knew I had been slacking and decided to bring the painting equipment outside to work in the garden rather than from photos in the studio.

Afternoon Garden ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
18×24 Watercolor, Arches cold press paper

Painting in the garden allowed me to enjoy the summery weather and work at the same time. Working the brush quickly I did my best to lay in all the colors and shapes I wanted before I lost momentum.

Once the work begins it goes well, I’m in the zone, the process of painting is satisfying and the end is agreeable to me.

Still, I’d rather not plod through the process.

Keeping On

I’m still working on painting those 100 paintings. Thank goodness I joined the challenge otherwise I would find excuses not to paint. So, the idea to be accountable to someone or something else works.

It’s like when you are in school and expected to come to class prepared. The possibility of failure is up close and personal. Not so when you’re working on your own. Who’s going to grade me? No one, but myself. And I could give myself a pass instead of a fail.

Independent study might not be my forte. In my last year in college I had a painting class at which the professor did not hold regular hours. You had to paint on your own and attend one class a month. You can just imagine how that went. I was wasting time until I received the notice when class would meet and then Bam! I had to get on it.

I pulled out my 5ft roll of canvas, kicked it out on my basement floor and where it stopped I cut it and painted. At the time I was working in oils doing color studies using a limited palette of three colors. Abstract work, mixing the amounts of colors to see how many I could get from those three in a cloudy-like design.

Working all day and into the late night, I painted until I filled eight feet of canvas. Needless to say, my professor was impressed. After all, he told me to paint bigger! I knew I could do that, I just needed the time frame.

Pebble and Bits (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor on Arches paper

All these years later I’m still the same person I was back then. I need to be accountable and have a time frame. I guess that’s why twenty minutes does the trick along with this challenge.

Finish Something…Tomorrow

Since I went on hiatus for the Easter holiday I haven’t been able to start a new project.  Here and there I found some time to knit at least.  And even that has been hit and miss.  I was excited when I bought Arches watercolor paper to try, but I’m looking for the next thing to paint so I can work with it.  Nah!  Resistance is peeking at me from around the corner, again.  A tough cookie, that resistance.

Yesterday I went to my studio just to look at it.  I decided to rearrange my desk and worktable, again.  Flopping the areas to be a little more Feng Shui this time.  I don’t like working with my back to the door, but then I like being able to see out the window too.  Having my back to the door felt worse than not seeing outside so I moved my desk.  Now if someone is coming toward my space I’m aware.  My table is under the window and that felt comfortable.  That darn light has been out now for a couple of weeks.  Watch when I get someone in to fix it, it will light up!  The light and I have a love/hate relationship. 

Before, light on
After, light off (darn light)

Something about rearranging the space made me feel good.  I know I’ve said it before, but it’s true that cleaning and straightening gets the creativity going.  I don’t know why, but it does.  So I’m feelilng kind of good about doing some painting again.

I read Week 7 in Walking in This World this week and it made me feel like I was on the right track.  The last section in Discovering a Sense of Momentum was entitled Finish Something.  Don’t we all have half done things hanging around?  At least I do. 

Whether it’s photos that need to be in a book, or artwork left undone, there’s always something that needs finishing.  The author, Julia Cameron, writes that to keep the creativity flowing we need to finish things we’ve left off. 

It can be as mundane as cleaning the medicine cabinet or straightening up a room.  She calls it a small pat on the back and a shove forward to moving our creative energy along.  Mend the socks.  Hang the curtains you bought.  Sort your CD collection.  Those things half done help us to drag our feet.  Finish things and the universe increases our efforts behind our back. 

I have been trying to get that studio in order since I carved out that space for myself.  Reading this chapter gave me the incentive to keep going.  I planned to visit IKEA for some much needed storage for the studio.  With the push from rearranging the room the day has come and it’s…tomorrow!  Today is just too busy with some other things I need to do.  But tomorrow is D-Day and I’m really excited about it.

The chapter ends with this: “Finish something-anything!..It’s an inner order: ‘Now, start something’ finishing something says.”  Here I go!