Resistance Archives - Page 11 of 16 - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Process Doesn’t Mean Perfect

Taking advantage of the momentum, I finished another watercolor painting this week. Imagine that? I had just wrapped up one work when I decided I should just keep going and start the next one.

The paints were out, the other painting was free from the watercolor block, I was there with wet paint brushes, why not?

I’m not even going to start with the whole thing about whether or not this is a good work. Forget it.

Process, baby, process. Start the work. Keep going until you finish the work.

Push it. Crush it. Process.

Three Pink Daisies ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
18×24 Watercolor, Arches cold press paper

Wanting to get it out of the way quickly I didn’t even spend time with the photograph. One shot and I was out of there. It’s a little shadowy on the upper right corner, which could possibly be my head blocking the light, but let’s ignore that, shall we?

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.

Some Kind of Wordless on Wednesday

Dodging Mr. Resistance isn’t easy so I try to hide out, but once in a while he finds me and aims his barbs when I peek over my shoulder.

If I’m not careful motivation is out the window and that’s that with that.

Since reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I am well aware of resistance and learned a few tricks to beat it quickly.

One of those tricks is to keep moving any way I possibly can. Either I can clean up the studio, doodle with my granddaughter’s crayons, dig in the garden, or whip out the camera. Something mindless usually works.

In between paintings, thinking things, and hunting for inspiration, I headed out into the garden.

A garden visitor

Looking for painting subjects in those old photographs allowed a chink for resistance to slip in. Bad move.

Out in the garden to follow the butterflies with my camera helped put a stop to that.

Morning Painting Session

Pushing resistance out the door, ironing out the kinks, keeping my fingers crossed that I can work on this latest watercolor painting with strong momentum behind me.

I can dream, can’t I?

Another session on this latest work

Funny thing is, I usually don’t paint early in the day when I know I have other things to get done. Today I had plenty of morning time with not much to do.

Granted, I’ve been awake since 5:30 AM. Wide awake at that.

Dressed, did the breakfast thing, read my news, checked email and all cyber stuff, kicked the family out the door, wrote the Morning Pages, straightened out the house, all before 9:00. Now what?

I painted. It might be a good thing, too.

The question is: will I come back this afternoon to finish?

Resistance Mode was Back

So, let’s just say I let Mr. Resistance stay a couple of days longer than I would like. Let’s just say, he made himself kinda comfortable here and decided he might help a little around here. Let’s also just say, I needed someone to kick me.

Resistance mode is not pretty, but this new work might be

It’s a nice thing to volunteer for the church, work hard, have a nice time with friends and fellow volunteers. It’s quite another to lose all momentum on the creative front just because I wasn’t painting for a week.

Being an artist is not easy at all.

Coming out of resistance mode is like climbing out of a deep crevasse, I just don’t want to have to cut my arm off to come free.

In the depth of my blah-dom, my don’t-feel-like-painting mood, while the new work sat waiting on my easel/desk, I wasted more time by surfing the internet. Bad.

Yeah, I get on, promote my stuff, spill some thoughts, share others. Blah blah blah. Knowing I’d get a little help from artist friends online I shared that the weather is rainy, there’s no motivation, maybe I should read a book, and would someone just kick me. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what one artist did. He commented: Here’s your kick. I love it!

Funny thing though, it worked.

Thankfully, the new work was ready to go or it would not be pretty.

Mr. Resistance is Not Welcome

What is it about Mr. Resistance that makes him so irresistible? One small thing can throw an artist off her wonderful motivation and balance, leaving the door wide open for Mr. Resistance to walk right in and make a mess of things. Thanks a lot.

It’s not easy being a nice person like me. How do I get trapped into the corner and allow Mr. Resistance to walk all over me? Am I a doormat? Do I look like I have the word “Idiot” tattooed across my forehead?

Um, no, but it happens every now and then that a little thing can derail a nice flow of creative energy, like a late day with too many things on the list to check off. Derail is a nice word. Trample my direction is another way of saying my art making hit the skids.

Okay. I’m over that now. Mr. Resistance is no longer welcome and it’s time to get back to work!

Here we have the work that broke through the resistance blockade. Another short time frame, a small window of opportunity taken, and the spell was broken. An after dinner hour to make magic, and I worked hard to get it done. Small and quick.

I cropped another photograph to get the composition I felt comfortable with and I went at it with a quick pencil line, then right to the paint. Again, less than an hour’s worth of work and this was finished. It’s not easy work either. There was plenty of thought behind this painting. Some how I’m able to think where I want to go and get to it quicker than I have in the past.

Finished projects happen far more often these days.

Thought for Thursday

“You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is…..unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.” Alice Neel

Pinning Down Affirmations

Creating a set of affirmations for the Blast Off class was a difficult task for me to start doing. Yes, in my Morning Pages I tell myself all kinds of things, not all are positive affirmations. Some times I say You Jerk, why’d you do THAT?

Trying to come up with affirmations that didn’t make me feel dopey and making cards to look at daily was causing me some resistance. Since beginning this course I think the classes, the readings, and the audios are kicking in. Today I had the time (made the time) and for some reason, felt the urge to jump in and do it.

I chose these four thoughts, something simple and do-able. I decided to try out the free paper I just got at the art supply shop this weekend. (Hmmm, abundance coming my way?)

First I wrote out my phrases in pencil then I played with the watercolors, thinking up designs as I read each card. The things I painted are the things I love looking at for my still life’s. I think they make sense to me.

Will reading these help me move ahead? Maybe. I’m trying my best to keep resistance at the door so I can stay in the game. One step at a time.

Resistance to Painting is Ridiculous

New painting

After a morning of errands, and plenty of procrastination, I kicked myself into gear after lunch to start working on a watercolor painting of the last of the sunflower photographs. I remembered I had a 15×20 pad of Canson watercolor paper and decided I didn’t need to shop for paper after all. Not today.

The only thing about this paper is that it’s loose sheets, not a block like I’ve been using. To work with sheets of watercolor paper I needed to tape it to a surface so that when it dries it lays flat.

There was no board this size to use as a surface so I taped it to my art table. You know what that means? It means I painted in my little studio. Can you tell I had the desk lamp on? It’s not the best light, but it will have to do.

Today I had a plan. After a brief pencil sketch just to place the flower heads on the paper, I wanted to use only the brush strokes for the petals and leaves. I tried to use just enough water to put the paint where I wanted it to go, using color for the lights and shadows, without drawing them in pencil.

Other times when I pencil in my composition I indicate where the shadows should go. Not this time. The brush stroke was dominant and the color choices developed the shadows. Watercolor is a tricky medium. But I guess every medium has it’s tricks. It’s up to the artist to discover how to use them.

Twenty minutes was the allotted time, but I may have painted past that. I didn’t use a timer today. When I felt I was too on top of this work, I stepped away to look over my table with jewelry supplies to distract myself. That was fun. More colors to look at, rather than ruin this painting with overwork.

When I said I kicked myself into gear, it was an understatement. There’s no reason for me to put up road blocks. It’s not laziness. It’s not boredom. It is resistance. I dragged myself to paint, with the little inner-child-artist having a tantrum and holding her breath until she’s blue.

It’s so ridiculous.