art with a little "a"

Setting aside the grandiose in favor of the experience

Hello Friend,

Have you ever visualized an entire book (or album, or gallery show, or some other creative project), jumping forward to the fantasy end results - the fame, being labeled a “tour de force,” breaking the best-seller records, the awards, the world-wide tour, the warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment and purpose, only to return to your blank page/canvas with nothing to share? Oh, is it just me?

Okay, I get it, I do have a VERY overactive imagination, which can be one of my greatest strengths and also one of my greatest weaknesses. Sometimes when it comes to being creative, I can get stuck in my head, and I have to work at not getting ahead of myself.

This week, instead of trying to create “GREAT ART,” I allowed myself to play without focusing on the outcome.

I started with some watercolor blobs:

After they dried, I outlined the shapes with a pigment liner:

It turns out that drawing lines around blobs of color is incredibly relaxing! I might just keep doing this for a while longer.

I forgot to take a “blobs only” photo of this one, but here it is with liner:

How is your week going? (I’d love to hear from you! You can add comments in the Substack App, or if you received this via email, drop me a line.) 😊

xo

Tanya