"Paintings With Personality"

I took a photo of these thistles while in Napa Valley, CA. Looking at the painting makes me think of the warm day and beautiful view with miles and miles of grape vineyards. 

A few years ago ‘Honey’, his brothers and their sons went fishing in Alaska (their wives and daughters weren’t invited). That gave Barbara, my sister-in-law, and me a chance to go to Switzerland. That is how we found ourselves in a little town on a plateau in the Pennines Alps with mountains rising high all around. Many of the people there were contented and enjoying comfortable lives. Others looked at the surrounding mountains with ambitious eyes, wanting more than the pleasant plateau. They dreamed of exploring every mountain and shouting from every mountaintop.

The dictionary includes both geographical and psychological definitions of plateau. The psychological definition said: “Reaching a state or level of little or no growth or decline, especially to stop increasing or progressing; to remain at a stable level of achievement; level off.” Many of us have come to a plateau in our art. Perhaps we are consistently winning awards and selling paintings. Or we have become bored with what we are doing. We have achieved the goals we made years ago so we sit and congratulate ourselves on our accomplishments. We’re feeling very powerful and perhaps a bit complacent. Even if we are happy with our plateau we should regularly set new goals and search for even greater achievements.

To get off our artistic plateau requires a lot of changes and we have all kinds of excuses for staying exactly where we are. The truth is it’s very comfortable there on our plateau. We might fail or worse yet, succeed! Perhaps we think to progress further isn’t possible for us, or we don’t want to work hard any more. Or we might be afraid of change. Whatever the reasons they are still excuses. An honest examination of ourselves will tell us what we are afraid of and what we really want to do with our art.

Once we have set our goals, we’ll need a plan of action on how to accomplish our objective. It will take self-discipline and sacrifice. The first step toward improvement is setting goals. So we take a critical look at our work and discover where we most need to improve in our art. We reach a little past where we are now so the goal will be achievable. If we aren’t sure why we are setting goals then we shouldn’t set them at all. We have to know what inspires and motivates us and what we are passionate about to achieve even a small goal.

We’ll need an alternate plan as well in case things don’t go the way we had hoped. The main thing is not to lose sight of our goals. Every day can’t be wonderful. There will be difficult days when we wonder why we are painting at all. There will be all manner of things preventing us from realizing our dream. Our own negative beliefs and emotions can be detrimental to our success, or the external distractions that are part of life in this day and age. When we fall into that ugly pit we can rest, renew our energy and our passion, and get rid of anything that is holding us back.

I was getting very bored on my plateau and decided to ‘jump’. A friend (in my critique group) advised me to buy a VERY LARGE canvas… and the rest is history. After years of painting people in watercolor I began painting in acrylic on 30”X40” canvas. I have also increased my painting time and have tried to do a painting a day along with my larger work. The painting a day hasn’t been very successful but I’m trying and have hope for tomorrow.

Our dreams won’t happen unless we set goals and work toward them. The outcome is our choice. 

Are you ready to 'Leap from a tall building in a single bound'? Let me know your process and progress.

The life of an artist is a continuous journey, the path long and never ending. (Justin Beckett, Canadian artist)

I saw this man in Rockefeller Center. I created the art in collage using paper I colored myself. I really liked his face with the trimmed mustache and intelligent old eyes.