Some days it ain’t easy being an artist – AEDM Day 8

Eight days into AEDM and I’ve hit up against a day where my head and my muse are simply not in agreement. I just finished painting out a painting that I have invested at least 10 hours of time into. It simply wasn’t working for me. The subject was beautiful, and one that I am very drawn to visually, but not something I find easy to paint. And after all of this time I was just done with it. Done frustrating myself, done pushing myself to finish it just to say I had.

Instead I will share with you my inspiration board today. Now I know a lot of artists who create these walls or boards where they post up photos and imagery that inspires them. That is not what I am talking about. I don’t really have one of those kinds of boards. I have a lot of art books and magazines and the internet filled with inspiring things. But I don’t have them hanging about in my studio.

Currently on my inspiration board

What I am talking about is one of two thin wooden panels that I paint over time and time again. Sometimes just a small area to test out a palette, or a concept. Sometimes a finished painting as a study. I had not really thought about these boards in anyway other than tools. But something happened the other day that made me think about them in a slightly different way.

Currently on my inspiration board

You see I had a visitor in my studio and my inspiration board was on my easel. My visitor was sitting and contemplating the painting that was on my board. And I was a little embarrassed by it. Because what I had painted there was not something I would normally paint, not something I particularly liked. Yet I had to own up to the painting as it was obvious I had done it.

Currently on my inspiration board

It was a funny moment and one I can laugh at now. But it made me realize that even those experimental, odd, sometimes silly bits that are forever changing on that board are my art. And I have to own up to them and accept them and in a way embrace them. Then I can obliterate them!