"Family No. 6"
This week’s featured painting is “Family No. 6” from 2023. It is done with oil on panel, and measures 2 x 5 inches.
I’m not a big believer in inspiration.
At least not the way it’s often portrayed – an artist sitting in front of their easel waiting for the blinding flash of divine inspiration to strike and reveal their next masterpiece in crystal clarity.
Sadly, it almost never works that way.
Years spent at a corporate desk job disabused me of romantic ideas about work – the tasks needed to be done when they needed to be done regardless of how “inspired” I felt, otherwise there would be an uncomfortable conversation with the boss.
So I just show up in my studio and get to work whether I’m full of good ideas or not.
That said, for the last few months I have not felt inspired.
In fact, I think I have had the painter’s equivalent of writer’s block (though nobody ever seems to call it painter’s block…).
I’ve felt no lack of enthusiasm or energy to get into the studio every morning, and I’ve even had ideas for individual works.
But I didn’t feel like I was headed in the right direction.
So, rather than fret, I’ve tapped the pause button with my “serious” paintings, and kept myself busy by just painted marbles instead.
It’s been a delight.
On one level, they’re just studies in color and form (painting a sphere well is quite a bit harder than it looks, and seems to be a prerequisite for paintings any other form well).
And it’s let me put aside almost any thoughts of what I really want to be painting – on the assumption that sooner or later that will become perfectly clear again – like it always does.
The inspiration always works itself out in the end, if I just let it be and do its own thing.
The good news is that the break was exactly what I needed, and my head is now full of the kinds of paintings I want to be working on.