Blog

This weekend, I had planned on doing a watercolor of this month's West Virginia camping trip. After a long and draining workweek and a Saturday filled with gardening and housework, I did not have the energy to do a tedious watercolor painting, but still wanted to accomplish something. How do you get started when a scary blank canvas or, as many of you may be able to refer to, an empty white sheet of paper is staring back at you?

First (probably wrong) solution: I can't paint before I haven't cleaned and rearranged my work space. How often get houses cleaned for the sake of procrastination? OK, I did that, and I have a wonderful studio space now, but that didn't get me nowhere near a finished painting.

So, of course you just need to get started! Easier said than done, right? Here is a tip to trick the mind into the "we are in the middle of the project" mode. First of all, I decided to paint something more playful and just blob the unmixed, pure paint onto the canvas straight from the tube. No tedious painting with a brush either, so I played around with paint knives. 

And the most important first step: get rid of the blank paper. Get rid of the white canvas. First, I painted the whole canvas a deep red, to cover up all that empty space (great advantage of acrylics: they dry fast). Voila! Easy enough! I can do that! Something so simple. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the painting. This works also really well with reports, articles, etc you have to write. Just take five minutes (you can set a timer) and jot down all the stuff that comes to mind, even if it's messy and by no means any good. But you have broken the spell of the blank canvas and you will see how it is much easier to go from there. Same for cooking - get started by filling a pot with water and set it on the stove, then take a break. Before you know it, you have made a pasta dish. Simple, a little messy, but enough to nourish the family :-)

And now I am happy to finish the weekend with a bold, energetic sunset painting that will brighten this rainy evening (and many more).