Losing Control Over Creativity

This week, I was confronted with how much I dislike not being in control. This extends to all areas of my life: school, work, art (though there’s quite a bit of overlap between the three). The one day a week I’ve managed to fit in a plein air session has typically been Wednesday. However, here in Lynchburg, we got some rain. Okay! That’s fine, we can pivot!

I tried to go on Monday, but I felt sick. No worries, we’ll just go on Wednesday! Rain again. By the time I actually got to go paint, I was feeling frustrated. Oh, but just you wait until you hear about my painting session.  

I decided to pick up a partially finished painting from a class session a few weeks ago that I felt had potential. There was something special about the dappled light and temperature contrast in the vibrant greens of this scene.

So finally, on Friday (a whole 4 days after this was due) I packed my bags and went over to the Awareness Garden here in Lynchburg. It had only been a couple weeks since I last went, but so many things had changed. They cleaned out the fountain, so the water was bright and clean now. The main tree I was painting had some fresh blooms.

As I began to set up, I noticed a really strong smell. As I looked around, I noticed some landscapers pouring out mulch into the flower beds. Okay, no biggie! As long as I’m not in their way!

That was until the sneezing and coughing started. Fun fact: did you know that some people are allergic to mulch? I didn’t - but found out quickly. Between each brushstroke, I’d rush to grab a tissue without paint to sneeze. This must’ve been quite the scene to everyone walking by, wondering what I was up to.

Ultimately, I powered through for about an hour. I decided to call it quits when I saw a huge yellow cloud moving towards me: the landscapers were using leaf blowers to clean the pollen off the pavement. I packed up in record time.

Looking back, my attempts to get this painting done feel like a comedy of errors. However, in the moment, it definitely didn't feel very funny. This is my greatest takeaway from this week: it really is not that serious.

I got the painting done! Yes, a little late. Yes, while suffering from mulch and pollen induced allergies. But I have something to show for it. And some content for the blog.

The Process

I began the painting with my usual warm, transparent wash on my wood panel primed with gesso. I used the next few minutes to quickly sketch out the composition in a tiny notebook. Once the main elements were arranged, I transferred this sketch to my panel with a warm dark mixture. I spent more time on this sketch because it included the statue figures.

Once I was happy with my sketch, I quickly massed in the background greens to give the painting some color context. I got into the darkest values of the water, to understand the true range of values I was working with. I wasn’t able to get super far with this first session, as I was mainly focused on the figures.

Painting after the first session (2.5 hours).

In my second session, I was mainly focused on keeping the painting fresh and not overworked (even though it needed a good degree of refinement). Since the figures are actually very small, I was limited in the amount of detail I could give the face.

For the rest of the painting, which I completed in the studio, I played around with pushing the color and temperature relationships, really playing up the blues in the shadows. I believe this is what makes the warm greens really pop.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this one! I like the simplification I achieved in the trees, especially the red one. If I were to continue working, I might tighten up the statue a tiny bit further.

Awareness Garden. 8×10, Oil on panel.