Blog
Morgan and Going Slow
What a face this girl has. Of course this probably looks nothing like her but the photo of her delicious face at Christmastime last year made me want to try. Sketched this using a grid on the airplane back from Philly.
Was thinking this morning about what it's like to be slow, what a lagging oddball I have felt like so many times. Slow at almost everything I do. All this value is placed on fast, on getting more done. But the reality of a painting as it comes to life is that there are hours and hours to it. Sketching erasing and resketching all before it's even time to pull out paints and begin to add color.
I need to remember there is nothing wrong with being slow. A turtle came to the studio door, right up to the threshold. I told my mom about that and she said " It's Daddy". How nice to think he'd say hello in the form of a turtle, a little nod to the world of "go slow and notice".
This morning I sat by the kids and their Legos and erased pencil marks and painted the tan house with the blue green trees that look like they are from another continent. Grateful for the time to paint and the chance to practice patience and enjoy the slow process. It's only while painting that I am really looking. I get to melt into the world, stare in awe at this whole thing God made. There are times when it is so hard to come back from painting, as if I stepped into a place of pure painless light and suddenly am snatched back. I wonder if other artists feel that, this two world feeling. The delicious pause.
It's one of those phases when my head catalogs things I want to paint one after another, the sketch Rhonda sent almost a year ago, Owens face, the little baby in the snowsuit, baby Charlottes face,on and on . . .
Was thinking this morning about what it's like to be slow, what a lagging oddball I have felt like so many times. Slow at almost everything I do. All this value is placed on fast, on getting more done. But the reality of a painting as it comes to life is that there are hours and hours to it. Sketching erasing and resketching all before it's even time to pull out paints and begin to add color.
I need to remember there is nothing wrong with being slow. A turtle came to the studio door, right up to the threshold. I told my mom about that and she said " It's Daddy". How nice to think he'd say hello in the form of a turtle, a little nod to the world of "go slow and notice".
This morning I sat by the kids and their Legos and erased pencil marks and painted the tan house with the blue green trees that look like they are from another continent. Grateful for the time to paint and the chance to practice patience and enjoy the slow process. It's only while painting that I am really looking. I get to melt into the world, stare in awe at this whole thing God made. There are times when it is so hard to come back from painting, as if I stepped into a place of pure painless light and suddenly am snatched back. I wonder if other artists feel that, this two world feeling. The delicious pause.
It's one of those phases when my head catalogs things I want to paint one after another, the sketch Rhonda sent almost a year ago, Owens face, the little baby in the snowsuit, baby Charlottes face,on and on . . .
Comments
Recent Works
Leave a Comment