Painting In the Moment

Work in Progress

This week I am preparing painting for a workshop on Painting Still Water. It is a small private group that requested I show them how to painting boats and reflections. So I looked through a bazillion photos to try to find one that had what they requested, yet was simple enough that it didn't overwhelm my students. I am not sure I succeeded but the photo I found is one I had in my "to do" file and has gorgeous reflections. Only there was one problem. I was finding it difficult to want to paint at all. Boats and reflections didn't seem profound enough to capture how I feel. Perhaps it is because of everything I have been through lately. All those major setbacks and tough decisions were getting to me. So instead of painting, I procrastinated by trying to figure out how I felt and what I wanted to paint.

Then I came across a quote by Paul Cezanne that made me realize that I need to just paint.

"Right now a moment of time is fleeting by! Capture its reality in paint. We must become that moment, make ourselves a sensitive recording plate, give the image of what we actually see, forgetting everything that has been seen before our time."

Although I may not be painting my world as it passes by, my inner world can be painted into what I do. It will all come out in the painting whether I want it to or not. Indeed, I can look back at some of my work from previous years and remember what I was doing in my life and how I felt during those times. My worries and problems became clearer as I painted and sometimes resolved. I realized that ideas for paintings and for life flow into me as the paint flows across the paper.

So I picked up my brush and started to paint. I must admit the painting is slow and isn't a mad dash onto paper but so are my thoughts. I am in no rush to finish this painting. I am just enjoying the process of painting in the moment and ruminating about the issues at hand.