Parenting? Painting? What’s The Difference!

These photos were taken during the wee hours of the night, and as you can see in the last photo posted, the lighting is less than ideal in my studio for photography than.

But, I wanted to share them with you anyways.

It’s so fascinating  how many “faces” one painting can take on before it finally starts to flow in a certain direction.

This painting is part of my 101 Imperfect Faces series I’m working on.  My main intention is to allow the face to emerge organically and let it dictate to me who it wants to be.

Like most FEARLESS® Paintings, it starts off as a child.  Not literally — meaning I don’t start painting a child.  But instead, in a very short time, the painting and what it looks like begins to morph and mature right before my eyes — much like a child.

As it’s occurring there are numerous decision and choices I have to make.  (Much like a parent.)

Should I move in this direction?  Does this feel right?  Am I pushing too much?  Am I forcing it to be something?  Should I stop here?  What would be really juicy right about now?  Shit, that didn’t work so well.  Now what?

And it goes on and on and on like this until I hit a flow.

That’s the beautiful part.  There’s always a point in my FEARLESS® Painting process where it becomes less about making choices and more about trust.

It’s usually after the painting and I have spent some good ol’ fashion quality time together….we built a bit of a relationship.  We’re cozy together.

What can be tricky though is that during the get-to-know-you period there are many points where the painting can “look” finished, though it certainly doesn’t feel that way.

There were a few points in this painting where I thought YES! I got it.  Good. Now I can go to bed.

But I’d prop it up, take a seat across the studio, and look at it for awhile and know that we were far from finished.  That things between us were just heating up.

So, the painting you see in the photo above is where the painting is transitioning from being a moody, angsty teenager to a more independent (and as you’ll see tomorrow) fiery young adult!

It’s a bittersweet period, to tell you the truth.  This painting here has so much potential to be beautifully just this.

It could stay here, settle down, and find a nice little corner of my studio to rest in and it would be pretty, in a sense.

But it wouldn’t be complete.

As FEARLESS® Painters (and parents) we owe it to our paintings to provide them with the space and time and patience to find their own true essence.

And just like parenting, somehow when they find their essence, a little more of our own is revealed as well.

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