When I start a painting there is the thrill of a new beginning, the excitement of a new expression, the joy of the blank surface ready and waiting for the first marks! And then there is that middle part. It’s like winter. The first snow is so beautiful, magical and exciting! Winter starts out with high hopes of cozy evenings, hot chocolate, spending afternoons making warm soups, long winter walks in the snow. Then you get to January/February. I spent a good part of my life growing up and living in Ohio until I moved to Colorado in 1995. In Ohio the winters are cloudy, dark and cold; the snow hangs around until it turns dark and muddy. I use to self-medicate with snicker bars and mountain dew to get though the gray on gray on gray days, looking at the calendar counting the days until the green of spring.

In life we don’t skip the middle part. We find ways to evolve through the seasons. We don’t quit breathing in the middle of winter. Ok some of you do head for warmer climates and that’s just cheating. No really take me with you next time.

In painting there is that first rush of lying in your forms and colors the excitement of a new painting coming into realization! Then you come to what I call the awkward puppy stage.  That cute puppy you got at 8 weeks all cuddly and tiny, sweet and full of play at 7 or 8 months had grown into a long legged gangly thing with each hair a different length, one of your good shoes in its’ mouth and shredded tax papers on the floor.

This is the stage of the painting where you haven’t yet defined all the forms, haven’t taken the contrast to its’ fullest extent, still needing to define and pull out areas. This is where you are thinking of packing a suitcase and heading to a warmer climate. Hang in there! The puppy will grow up to a beautiful loving dog and those shoes weren’t that comfortable anyway.

This is the stage that a lot of artists stop and move on to the next painting and end up with a room full of unfinished work. Don’t give up on the puppy! Put on some different music, turn the painting upside down, look at it in a mirror to get a new perspective, jump up and down to get your energy up and approach the painting without attachment to the final outcome. Be ok with just doing your best at that moment in time. Remember it is just paint. You won’t hurt anyone if it turns out badly but if you never finish it you will never experience what could have been. All the stages of a painting can be approached with fear and uncertainty just as well as they can be approached with openness, curiosity, acceptance and perseverance. And if you must whine, as sometimes we all must, then have some cheese with your whine and know that this too shall pass. That awkward looking pup becomes cute in your eyes and winter becomes spring.