Inspiration & Creation

The summer search for inspiration is endless. The hikes in the mountain, the wading down the streams, the berry picking on the mountain slope: all of these events are enjoyed not only for the experience of the moment but also for the paintings that will be born of it.  My camera is never far from my side and it records as I go. My pockets fill with rocks, pine cones, funny sticks and wisps of the gray lichen that is so hard to duplicate in a painting. So many beautiful and extraordinary sights to see.

So you would think that all the paintings come easy and that when I finish one, the next idea just rolls out ready to be painted.....but that is not always so. Sometimes the place between paintings is a most awkward uncomfortable place. I want to be painting but the idea for the next painting is in an uncomfortable growing phase that is taking its own time to develop.

 The bunches of other ideas that not long ago made me excited to paint, are just not right to create at this time. So instead of painting ....I am forced to turn the inspiration around and around in my head, then run it through my heart until....it is finally ready to think about becoming a painting.  It is a bit like being horse in the race gate but without a race to run.

But when it is time.....wow....the inspiration from all that time out in nature........it all comes together to jump start an idea. Then the I am on a quick run to the easel and the beginning of something new!

Photo of me enjoying inspiration on Vancouver Island and a painting called Turtle Creek featuring a close up look at a small island creek rippling its way down to the sea.