Missing Pieces.

i just spent 4 days with my niece for her 5th birthday. She is such a little cutie doll. We painted and drew and hung out with her dollies. It was supercalifragilistic! I am missing her a bundle today…her cute little laugh and demands of “Aunty Jane!” like I was the most important person in the whole world…oh it was heaven on a stick!

And painting with a my 3 year old twin nephews was so liberating! Their sense of colour was so free…no trying to harmonise the pallet, or integrate the background and subject. It got me thinking: Is there a correlation between: The more I learn and cram into my skull; the less room I have to just meander creatively along?

I am thinking back to my earliest photography days and it’s amazing how little technical know-how changed the overall feel of my work! I can see technical improvements in focus and image clarity bought about by equipment upgrades. I can see a refinement of process and less and less reliance on software to perfect a shot. I can see artistic growth bought about by experimentation. What I can’t see is all the books and magazines I read!

I want my work to improve of course, but I don’t want my work to become tight or restricted. I don’t want to just worry about technique and forget the simple joy that creating brings. I flourish under workshop guidance, but I need to be mindful of the teachers I enlist and make sure they are espousing  technique, not their style.

So on my painting journey, I am approaching things a little differently. I have accepted that I am an intuitive creative. I like to experiment on my own. Just start off and see where I go and let my inner 3 year old call the shots! Of course I listen repectfully and politely to advice that is coming from a place of love, but I don’t follow it if it just doesn’t feel ‘right’ to me (for me!).

I won’t allow myself to feel ‘silly’ or ‘wrong footed’ for using my tools in the way that works for me. I am not an art historian, I don’t know all the laws of composition and colour. and I don’t care! There! I said it! I don’t need to know so much! I am just going to ‘do’.

Hoo Boy, I never expected my cute faux-babies (I have furbabies too!)  to have such life lessons to teach me!

x Jane