A spring in my step

Well, yes, I know that this blog is supposed to be about writing, but this is surely what I'm doing? N'est-ce pas? OK, so this post is writing about painting but it's still being creative which is my excuse. I was really struggling to settle to anything last night. I couldn't write fiction, I attempted but deleted a couple of blog posts, I couldn't paint. Then I gave myself a stern talking to. The trouble was I wanted everything to be perfect first go and after my initial attempt at painting a still life turned out merely 'reasonable', I allowed myself to think that I couldn't do it and with that frame of mind then sat down at the pc and assumed that the juice would just flow in words instead, but naturally it slowed down to a trickle. I had it appeared a touch of creative constipation (what a thought!). Eventually, after said stern talking to, I sat down again and approached the artwork from a different angle - one of merely enjoying the sensation of loaded paintbrush on paper, watching the colour and shape form. It didn't matter how it turned out, the point of the exercise was merely that I was doing it and enjoying it. In the end, I was quite chuffed. I have a habit of buying greetings cards that 'would be good to paint' and then they sit in a box for years waiting for that day! Well, the day had finally arrived for a photo of a tulip that was crying out for a watercolour interpretation. First attempt (bottom) was done quite carefully with a pencil sketch outline; second (middle) I just let the paintbrush lead me and kept the whole thing more fluid. Neither are perfect but I really enjoyed myself and took away a great sense of achievement, which considering how the evening had begun, was especially satisfying. Tonight I scanned them in and applied a poster edge filter on one (detail - top) so the fun continues!