Creative Process - Dancing with the Muse

Progress photo

One of the subjects I devote space to in this blog is the creative process, or at least my creative process. I cannot speak for other artists. I have been having "issues" with my new skies. Issues not unlike a woman goes through when she dyes her hair a new color and all the clothes in her wardrobe just don't go right. This may be why artists become very comfortable with a palate of specific colors and do not change it.

I had done the skies and the moons, always where I begin, and then put the first wash of color on the Court House towers and stopped dead. My standard cliff wall color scheme was just too rude. I walked away - literally - and for the last week have ignored the paintings in the studio. I had left brain art business things to do anyway.

January is when artists must make decisions about exhibitions and shows they wish to enter. This requires photographs of your work formatted as requested by the shows or for Zapplication (ever more popular thankfully). Since I had the infamous computer crash meaning lost images (some residing on FlickR), and a new computer with Windows 7 requiring a new photo editing software (Corel Paintshop Pro - sorry Adobe but you really have priced yourself out of my market) this was not as easy as it could be.

But all the time I was in my left brain getting business done my right brain was dancing with the muse, as it were. Finally, yesterday, I let the muse lead me back to the studio with a "color scheme" in my mind for my two paintings of the Court House towers. As I have used the same blues in the water and sky on the other canyon scene I will no doubt use some of the same colors on the painting in the upper right.

I am eager to get back to painting this morning because I now know where I am going though I don't imagine the path will be as easy or clearly marked as when I am working with a more familiar palate. This has all served to remind me that my creative mind is working even when it appears I am totally blocked. The key is to not force it. Let you muse take the lead.