Stop to Play: a painting from start to finish

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” – Lao Tzu

I spent a good part of this past weekend working on some new paintings.

I’m always interested in the beginning stage of anything, but especially a new painting when any story is still possible. Of course, starting a new painting is similar to any “blank page” – it’s easy to doubt my ideas and freeze up before I even begin.

This doubt is part of the reason I love to look back on the process of a painting from start to finish – I can really see my ideas move through each phase, from abstract color to a more coordinated landscape.

Here’s my formula to move past the doubt, even when I’m feeling less-than-confident: 

I first put down a layer of color without thinking too hard, picking colors I love and mixing them together. By following this step, I’m guaranteed a simple transition into a new painting, and I allow the creative part of my brain to warm up.

Step 1: Get down a first layer of color

At 11×14, this board is bigger than my previous paintings and outside of my 8×8 comfort zone. To celebrate the fact that I tried something new, I had fun with mixing! Can you tell?

Step 2: Fill in the rest of the white space

This painting, especially at the larger size, was SUCH an experiment! I wanted to feel freedom, to let the paint flow off my brush without judgment, and to have faith that I would discover a story out of this mess of color. At this stage I really just had to trust that I would figure it out. Patience.

Step 3: What do you see? 

Once I had all my white space covered up, I began to look into the paint for any interesting shapes. Before long, I saw tree trunks rising to the right and left and a great expanse of blue sky between them.

I loved the skinny, multi-colored trunks and decided to define them with a mixture of my paint pens and acrylics. I also dabbed in more layers of paint for the sky, to create the heavily layered color that I adore.

Step 4: The story begins 

Once I knew that my painting would have tall, skinny trees and a great expanse of sky, I began to actually coax the trees into shape. Remembering the free spirit feel that I wanted, I painted in the branches and leaves to loosely float across the sky.

I also covered up the trees on the right, cut a sun out of textured paper, and painted over the paper. I love how the sun looks like a bright, cheery jewel in the sky. I could now see a landscape beginning to form, though I still didn’t know where the painting would lead me.

Step 5: The message

Generally at this stage, I think about what story or message I’d like the painting to have. At first I saw this scene as a meditative moment – the fresh air, the trees, the warmth of the sun. The word RELEASE kept turning up in my mind, and so I painted the word along the slope of the ground.

And yet, the painting wasn’t done and something wasn’t sitting right.

Step 6: It’s all in the detail. Or is it?

I kept looking at the word RELEASE and feeling like something was missing. I put the painting down and worked on something else for a while, asked for feedback from others, and generally allowed myself time to think. Was this painting really about that meditative moment, or was it about something else?

I decided to give RELEASE one more shot, and added some flowers and additional detail to the sky, trees, and grass. While I was happy with the new details, the message was still not right.

Here’s where the compassion comes in, friends. Sometimes we just have to (gently) abandon an idea, change course, and work towards something new. Thankfully acrylic paint is quite forgiving, as is my style of layering lots of color.

Step 7: The true spirit of the painting

I decided to listen to my intuition. I closed my eyes and asked, “should I keep RELEASE?” The answer came back to me: no.

Okay, so what next?

I opened my eyes and looked again at the landscape I had created. What was working for me was the energy of the paint and the flexible, loose quality of the lines. I added birds and a few curious bees, loving their ability to fly and play around.

And there it was, suddenly. The right word.

PLAY.

Play is a word I think about often, working as much as I do. When do we have time to play? Do we ever allow ourselves time to laugh or have a new, fun experience? I also look to my young nephews, who love to play and have the ability to do so every day. I hope they never lose that desire, even as responsibilities begin to creep in.

I named this painting Stop to Play as a gentle reminder for all of us to stop, explore, and play whenever we can. To put aside responsibilities for just a moment and appreciate the world as if through the eyes of the children in our lives.

Of course, remembering to play is a type of release, so I’ll give myself a break on this one. I wasn’t too far off.

The original painting, art prints, and note cards will be available in my shop in the next few weeks, and I’ll send out an announcement in my newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter and would like art announcements, as well as reflections that I don’t share on the blog, be sure to sign up below.

And now I’d love to hear from you! When did you last take time for play? Tell me about one time in the past few weeks that you allowed yourself a moment to just have some fun.

xo,