watercolour painting – I Give You The Verbs

A grey autumn afternoon seems the perfect time for a post about colour, don’t you think?

At the start of the year, I decided to do a weekly creative post here at I Give You The Verbs, so 52 Paintings (a category on the blog) and #paintisaverb (for Instagram/Twitter etc) were created. (If something’s worth doing, it deserves its own blog category and hashtag, right?) Here’s the first post in the series.

Over the past 14 weeks, I have painted more than I have over the past 46 years. Some weeks the paints were out day after day, and some weeks I was less motivated or found it hard to make the time. When I got a job, I treated myself to a couple of one-on-one art lessons with Selina of I I Can Draw With Selina and I discovered that I can actually draw. I think I’ll stick with painting, but it was awesome to achieve something I thought was completely out of my reach. I drew a cupcake! Selina taught me so much in our lessons; I have new skills, and more importantly, I have new confidence in my creativity.

A couple of weeks ago someone in my bloggy Facebook gang shared a link to The 100 Day Project, which you can read all about here. In a nutshell, the 100-Day Project is a celebration of process that encourages everyone to participate in 100 days of making. The great surrender is the process; showing up day after day is the goal. For the 100-Day Project, it’s not about fetishising finished products—it’s about the process.

The great thing about the project is that the manner of making is up to each individual who decides to get on board. I know people who are doing #100daysofhandlettering, #100daysofmakingmandalas, and #100daysofrandomcreativity to name just a few.

I am doing #100daysofpausing. I didn’t think I could commit to being creative in the same way for 100 days running, so by choosing to pause, I can take a photograph, paint, write, cook, reflect, strike a yoga pose, look at the sky, sing a song…. the options are only limited by my imagination.

Here are some of the things I’ve paused to make, see, enjoy, appreciate and feel so far.

I am posting every day on my Instagram account. If you don’t already, why not follow me and we can count off the 100 days together?

This challenge is an extension of what I wanted when I started #paintisaverb, which is to be deliberately creative, to make creativity part of my every day life and not some far off, only for the ‘talented few’ thing that I couldn’t enjoy. For the time being there might not be specific 52 Paintings posts each week, but I’m still creating and making!

There are about 80 days remaining of #the100dayproject – it’s not too late to get on board, and commit to making as a daily practice. I am loving it, I’m thinking more creatively, and appreciating the time spent on making. It’s not something I have to ‘squeeze in’, it’s something I look foward to every day – it might be as quick as taking a photo, or painting for 10 minutes or longer. It’s the act of making that counts, not the amount of time spent or the results.

And don’t we all need that? Something that we do for FUN, not for a result or a critique? I think so.

As the Dilmah man says, ‘do try it’.

Yours colourfully,

Annette

Last year, I did some great creative courses run by the fabulous Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mike’s. I learned SO much great stuff, stuff that’s changed how I look at the world, and how I spend my time. You can read all about the courses Pip’s offering over the next few months here.

What has really struck me, as I reflect on my year of online learning, is how much of what I’m excited about and enjoying in my life now, wasn’t even on my radar 12 months ago.

One of the best things that came out of doing her course on boosting your creativity, Inspiration Information, was that I went out and bought art supplies. I’ve never done that outside of needing something for an assignment at primary school – anyone remember going to buy craft paper at the newsagent? That was in a time called ‘the olden days’ when children wrote out assignments on big coloured pieces of card, and stuck pictures from magazines on them. When Google was a big row of books at home called Encyclopedia Britannica. The good ol’ days!

Buying art supplies, then enjoying using them, even though I felt awkward at first, has been a real life lesson to me.

Just because I hadn’t painted since I was about 15, and I’d never thought I had much talent for it, it didn’t mean I couldn’t take up painting now and find it really enjoyable.

With Pip’s encouragement to just explore and PLAY, I have discovered that I really enjoy painting with watercolours. I’m no Picasso, and I still can’t draw an apple convincingly. Heck, I’d hardly even rank myself an amateur, but I am an enthusiast, and I think that’s something that often we consider ourselves ‘too busy’ to be.

I mean think about it, what do you do, as a grown-up, that’s just for fun, for play?

I can almost hear your response to that – ha, play, who has time for that? Between my job and running around with the kids and laundry and study and paying the mortgage…. who has time for play?

Playing is powerful. Playing is fun. Play makes you forget about the work stresses, the mortgage, the laundry, even if it is just for 10 or 15 minutes. Try it. Go on, your life isn’t so full that you can’t find 10 minutes just to play. And if it is, well, that’s a whole other blog post. At first, it may feel very strange, or even ‘self indulgent’. It is absolutely not! It is good for you.

People may not get it. That’s okay. People might be bemused, and ask you why you’ve got the paint brushes out. That’s happened to me.

Here’s what you tell them – I’m playing.

Just let it hang there, ‘I’m playing’. No end game, no master plan, no ‘reason’ other than I’m just playing.

And I feel so good while I’m painting, it wakes up my creativity. And the good feelings continue after I’ve painted.

Once I could switch off my own ‘what for?’, and just allow myself to play, I was hooked!

I proudly play now, I paint! Paint is a verb.

I’ve decided to share a painting on the blog once a week, not for critique or praise (or to have eggs chucked at it), but simply to remind me to continue to play, to access that part of my brain that comes alive when I get out my paints and paper, wet the brushes and just dive in, with no idea what’s going to come next. It’s so relaxing, and enjoyable.

Maybe by the end of the year there will be some ‘improvement’, maybe there won’t. That’s not the point. The painting itself is.

So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here is work 1/2015.

Don’t forget to play, okay?

It will make you happy, and who doesn’t want more of that!

Do you play? What do you do, create, practice? I’d love to hear about it.

Cheers,

Annette

You can check out my paintings on Instagram, I’ll be using the hashtag #paintisaverb.

PS Don’t forget to check out Pip’s online courses – right here – that’s not at all sponsored, I’m just a student and fangirl!

I Give You The Verbs

Tag: watercolour painting

{Water}colour my world

Paint is a verb