Until you try ...

... you don't know what you can't do!

Henry James

Ha! I've always taken that statement by Mr Henry James in a very positive light. It says to me 'how do you know it's not possible if you if you don't try?!' 

Now, it's not that I've reached my limits or anything (heaven forbid!!),  but it's definitely been a week where every, single attempt I have made at finishing a piece of art has gone completely and utterly haywire. For a whole week's work, I  have nothing finished or even tangible to show. If that ain't TRYING I don't know what is ;-) Not ONE finished piece to show ...YOU that is. Yet that is what I had set my sights on doing. Seemed realistic enough at the time: kids at school, sunny, light-filled days, house clean enough to allow myself completely guilt-free painting time. Then ...

Complete paralysis! Artist's block

Yup! Not NO ideas - but rather so many that I just plain got snagged in the infinite realm of sheer possibility! I now have no less than 15 different projects scattered around my atelier dining room all in various stages of completion, or lack thereof. You see, the possibilities for any one canvas (or decent sized piece of wood in my case) are so infinite that I could spend an hour or two just looking at each one and imagining it this way, then that way, in monochrome or colour, with ornate calligraphy and a simple background, with simple calligraphy and an intricately worked background ... Then which type of lettering? Ink or gouache or acrylic or a mix of all? You get the picture? Not yet - I haven't finished one hahaha.

To compound the paralysis, when I don't finish something regularly I get panicky. Trying to fit everything in around the household routine (and MY GOD I HAVEN'T STARTED HOMESCHOOLING YET) means that I get frustrated with myself if I'm not efficient. Ridiculous I know - but I am a teeny weeny bit like that. Every minute must be accounted for in my head. Business man Beaker, who thinks I am the most inefficient person in the world would take issue with this of course... This sort of attitude I realise is obviously NOT commensurate with creating anything at all - except maybe a yummy dinner, which Beaker is more than happy for me to spend time on as long as it arrives on the table before 9.30pm. 

So today, with the sun shining brightly, and Train desperately trying to compete with me singing Hey Soul Sister at the top of my lungs - I resolved to give up trying to finish any of my pieces and allow myself to merely play around with no other objective or hidden agenda in mind than experimenting. To HECK with it! No Expectations!!

La Rivière is surrounded by roses at the moment so I abandoned my customary blues in favour of, dare I say it?  Delicate, gentle, feminine, soft PINK - with a hint of yellow!! It's not Moi - but I've let my sensibilities be influenced a little by my surroundings ...

Here's a wee glimpse of one piece but remember it's still only 'trying,'  for the pure pleasure of enjoying mixing inks with my fingers - much like what I used to love doing with my grandmother's lipsticks when I would play on her sunporch as a wee messmonster myself ;-)

Hope to be around a bit more often this week,  but the sun has a gentle pull that the Mac is having a hard time competing with. 

What would you choose??