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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Intuïtive painting ‘Rainforest’

Hi soulful creators!


She is done,  WHEEEEE! J I’m  soooo happy with this painting and everything I’ve learned along the way!


Well, the story continued as I revisited this painting again and again.
I’ve had to set my fears aside and leave them at the doorstep of my temporary studio every day.
And learn to ignore my inner critic… Let me tell you, it does become easier and easier every time you do that!
I now feel I have some sort of pact with my inner critic. I’m glad she’s there to warn me when I’m about to make a stupid mistake. However, I don’t immediately agree with her anymore. 
I listen, give her room to ventilate her opinion and then decide for myself. She sometimes will throw a tantrum when I disagree but at that time I’ve already decided to go my own way. She now knows I am grateful she’s there to keep me safe. All is well with us.

Really beautiful creators, make friends with your inner critic instead of fighting her! Talk to her, tell her you’re glad she’s there but you are in control of your actions! Make a deal with your inner critic. 
Heck, you could even write out a contract and put it on your wall in your studio to help you remember you are friends and have an agreement! J

Anyhow, I happily painted away the last couple of days. Along the way the changes became smaller and smaller. The painting grew into being finished while I added littler details. A little more white here, a bit of shadow there, a different color for her eye, and so on.
Then all of a sudden I simply knew there was not much to do anymore, a fine line here and there and she was finished.


But guess what….that’s where my inner critic forgot about the contract and started to tell me I could not put this painting out in the world! No Way! To embarrassing!

This is what I said to my inner critic:

My dear caretaker, I know you only want the best for me and I thank you for that. I appreciate you want to protect me from harsh critique and embarrassment. I want to put my art out there the way it is right now, pure, raw and without hesitation. I can only learn from critiques or at least not take them personally. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine because I am proud of my creation and of me!

*swirls through the studio in a frantic confidence dance*

I then signed my painting,  took it outside for a picture in daylight and made this little video for you beautiful souls to watch the process. Enjoy!

Here are some specifics about the video and the painting. You know, the how and why and materials and such. If that’s to boring for you just scroll down for the video!

Materials used:
  • A wooden panel I found in a shed here in Germany (we work with what we have right?)
  • Sanded and cleaned off course! I must be honest, my sweetheart did that for me! Gotta love my man! <3
  • No preparation, I started out with fabric spray paints and acrylic paints immediately.
  • Stamps, stencils and markers galore!
  • I also pasted on paper napkins with the ever so necessary matte medium. Who could live without it hey?
  • I used charcoal to make sketches.
  • For the elephant and goddess I mainly used portfolio wax crayons because I just loooooove their transparency.
  • Some metallic and iridescent paint here and there.
  • I stamped, stenciled, painted with brushes, my fingers, sticks of wood, bottle caps and so on.
  • I wrote when I felt like it. At one point these phrases just drifted in….
    “All of you is the truth of you”
    “Say yes to you and the Universe will answer the same”
    “Every layer adds to the whole, without them it would be incomplete. So would you”
    “We are multidimensional in more ways than you can imagine”

She now awaits a nice finish, probably a matte varnish of some kind but I want to let her dry completely first.
For the video I took the pictures I had taken every now and then and made them all the same size in Photoshop. Because I worked with this painting at different times of the day the lighting isn’t always the same. That’s why in the video the colors seem to change back and forth. The last picture in the video is the one I took in broad daylight. Just watch her shine! LOL

Now you go and create something without fear and make a deal with your inner critic! She’s actually not hard to talk to, really! :-)

Happy Creating
~Monique


Ow, and beware of drastic changes! I followed my muse with the most trust I could muster up so there were some drastic changes happening to my ‘Rainforest’ while she was growing up! 








7 comments:

  1. wow, this was so interesting to watch, I love the results (and your beautiful dogs, I love German Shepherds, that's the only dog I will have)

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    1. Thank you RuthArt! The dogs are big sweethearts (exept for the postman!) but unfortunately not mine....we are dogsitting for friends while they are on vacation. I'll be home soon, back in my own studio, I'm looking forward to that too. Happy Creating!

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  2. Fantastic post! Love your idea of making friends and the contract. I never thought of her as being the one who wanted to protect me. Interesting perspective. Love the finished product!!!
    Yvonne

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    1. Thanks Yvonne! :-) It's really nice to fiend a 'new friend' within yourself. :-)

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  3. Oh this is absolutely fantastic! And thanks so much for sharing the process. I sometimes start and then go "What was I thinking" and change everything. Makes me feel better to see you change so much and turn out with something so exquisite!

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    1. Thank you Shirley! Sometimes changes are for the better, just trust and enjoy the process. :-)

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  4. Beautiful! I loved watching all the changes and growth it went through.

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