I have taken quite a few Jeanie Oliver classes and in all of them she mentions gathering your inspiration and/or material. it’s always beautiful and interesting to watch but honestly, I never really did it for myself.
lately, I have been trying to simplify my process and work with more intention….so I am (finally) giving the whole gathering thing a real try.
It’s still early days but I can already how honoring what I love ( to create with) and how I want to create feels in my body.
I think that because I came to art via an interest in abstract expressionism and intuitive painting that I was very unattracted to to a more limited palette, limited supplies approach.
for me, part of the excitement in painting is just intuitively reaching for colors and materials and I thought limits would sort of mess with my studio movements.
while the freewheeling approach once worked ( am may again)… a bit of foresight can definitely go a long way in providing space to explore…in times when you don’t have the time or space to work with wild abandon. these are those times
as someone , who is primarily works in sketchbooks, these days, I am no stranger to limits but I have mostly a sort of kitchen sink application with supplies until recently. earlier this summer, I let go of a large portion of my acrylics, they just didn’t bring me joy and the additives were making me sick…
so I have been sort of free-falling when it comes to art because acrylics are a very forging medium. Learning how to get my desired results in watercolor, markers, gouache, ink, colored pencils, graphite and charcoal etc. has been a on-going process. it has also been overwhelming, although that is all self-induced because I felt such an huge gap in my technical skills*. It’s still there but I have been working away at it with slow and deliberate attention.
as someone who loves all the art supplies and to explore having a container for my inspiration has been sanity saving. there will always be new and better but knowing how to really use the things that you have is also amazing. Someone will always be doing something cool and interesting but knowing what you like and the marks you enjoy making is equally as interesting. it is so tempting to think that the supplies make the art…while they shouldn’t hinder, if we are honest a lot of it is just marketing. I am already the artist I need to be…it’s take practice to be the one I want to be. practice. practice. practice.
*this gap has more to do with me and ,u own changing interest than the medium