Satisfyingly Small

 This entry was originally posted on Friday, April 27, 2012

Yellowstone

7.5 x11"

 

Up until a couple of years ago, I hardly ever worked smaller than a half sheet of watercolor paper (15x22").

I had always loved working big.

But that was before I met my match in a commission portrait.

A very large commission portrait.

So it sat on my easel for weeks.

Staring at me. Taunting me.

I turned it upside down.

I turned it around.

I even put it in another room.

 

Didn't work.

It had stopped my creative flow.

I was frustrated and I felt guilty if I worked on anything else.

So I didn't.

I went weeks without picking up my brush.

 

Then one day during a torrential rain storm, I had enough.

The lack of painting was depressing me (and the rain didn't help)

I had kept a stack of photos a mile high on my side table that I wanted to paint someday.

Today was that day.

However I still felt guilty about working on a large piece. I felt like I didn't have a right to do so until my commission was done.

But a small piece is okay, right? 

Just a little bit won't hurt.

 

 I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and went to work.

And you know what?

My flow returned.

I was back in the game.

After I completed the first one, I painted another and another.

It was so satisfying to feel successful at these small pieces, that I was able to return to the commission with fresh eyes.

It was completed the very next day.