Bad day paintings
+ the power of limitations
I was having a spectacularly bad day, but the sun was shining, so after an entire day spent feeling sorry for myself I figured I would at least take the dog for a walk in a park, and as a result I was able to paint some things I saw that otherwise would not have entered my consciousness.
A friend also surprised me with a little gift of Case For Making watercolours yesterday - two colours, Lavender Blue Lake and Raw Umber Greenish. See below for colour test. The paints are handmade from natural materials so they do go down a little chalky (a bit of colour comes off on my fingers when i rub the dry paint on the paper), so it’s not for every application, but they’re fun to work with and the colours are beautiful.
Formulating an idea of what to paint from two paint pans is like magic. The creative power of limitations is very real. When in the National Gallery last month, I forgot my huge pencil case containing its fountain pen and different sized brush pens/fineliners/pencils in my hotel room and was forced to make do with a single pencil and pen from the gallery gift shop. It worked perfectly fine, plus I didn’t have to carry around and dig through a case, and i ended up using only those two things (plus watercolours) for the rest of the trip. A happy accident!
In Paris, I became annoyed at how much purse space my watercolour case was taking up when I was only using a few of the colours. So this week I bought a new small case and scaled down:
Lately, painting has somehow become emotionally cumbersome in the same way that the thought of going for a long run after your workday makes you want to lie down. But painting also feels like reminder of how to feel human again. Like how you don’t remember how exercising (or going for a little walk) actually makes you feel better until you go and do it. I’ve always taken for granted that I would never not want to be painting — the past few weeks have made me appreciate that I’m still learning a lot about how its role in my life will continue to evolve as I adapt to new ways of working.
This weekend go forth and do something that makes you feel better!
xo Zoe
ps i loved the parka + shorts person - i live in boston and...yes, exactly. (it was nearly 90F the past two days and then the temps dropped 40 degrees. in the same day i had the a/c and fans on but then later the electric blanket.)
i was just talking about "the creative power of limitations" (this is such a great and succinct phrase and i will be finding a permanent memory slot in my brain for it) the other day. it was in reference to top chef, as someone always bungles it when they have access to everything and a buttload of time; but also when i was getting my BFA i definitely did some of my best work when my professor was like "and you can only use one font, no color, two sizes and two weights." and everyone would groan and feel stressed like a quickfire challenge but then you would churn out some truly beautiful stuff. the projects that i took the longest on and had the hardest time with as a working adult were definitely the ones where i had to start with a blank canvas like it was this great gift of open ended creativity.