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...and why you should probably stop thinking and paint.
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"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller
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I've been a bit quiet over the summer. I've been travelling, thinking, looking and, as usual, probably overthinking. But I'm back at the easel, and it got me thinking about what actually happens when I paint.
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As Ferris Bueller says, life moves pretty fast - art, either the creation, or the appreciation of, makes you stop and look around.
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Art is about looking, observing what's really there. To do that you have to stop thinking about it to an extent and just look at something, rather than think about what you are seeing.
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It's a little bit like falling asleep
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You don't just start with your brain in painting mode. You have to think things through to begin with. The paints you're going to need for the session, the composition, the structure... but once you start putting paint onto the canvas something happens.
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I am going to use my iWatch to track my heartrate and see if it follows what I suspect.
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That is, once you get going you relax - if you achieve the flow state - things start to happen and your subconscious starts doing the painting and often, that's where the best painting comes out on the surface.
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Arguably the best bits of painting just happen, they are happy accidents, or rather instinctive.
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When I'm in that flow state I'm often not thinking at all. Or maybe I am, but in an abstract way - maybe that's what creativity is? If you are following rules and patterns then you are enacting something other than a uniquely new piece of creation.
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That's what I'm really looking forward to, getting back to that flow state and trying not to miss the world around me by overthinking it!
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...time to stop thinking and start painting
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ArtHawks - something else I've been thinking about
Over the summer I've inadvertently become a software developer.
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ArtHawks started as an idea for making it easier for artists to get their work into places where people already are, and for venues to make better use of their walls.
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It's been a strange and surprisingly enjoyable combination of my art, marketing and technology brains.
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I'm now looking for artists and venues who'd like to help me test it properly.
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