April Showers
April showers bring sunshine and fresh blooms. I can’t believe we are halfway through the month already. If you have been following along on Instagram you know I packed up and moved north in the last few weeks. Getting settled and unpacking the last of the boxes has been a breath of fresh air. I think this week was the first time back that I have gotten into the studio painting for a few hours a day without worrying about what the apartment looks like around me. And boy was it great putting paint to canvas again!
Peep this photo taken literally five minutes from my new place. Sunset photos will be nonstop I hope you are prepared. If you’re not a part of Instagram but follow me here, I have a new section on my website to shop through these new skill pieces I have been creating so you can find one that speaks to you. They are super gorgeous but aren’t my typical style or design so they are a fraction of what my originals are priced at. Shipping is on me!
You’re always asking about the animals to make sure they are thriving. Well good news they love the new place. The sunbeam from the patio is twice as big and hangs around into the afternoon for them to just snooze away. There is more space into the dining room so the zoomies capacity is real. Both Gimli and the kitties think this place is the auto ban and take any chance they can to run in and out of all the rooms and boxes. Gimli has loved sniffing all the new smells around the neighborhood and spends the rest of his day napping in his chair on the patio.
I am officially hitting the end of section one of my classes. I admit they have taken more time than I initially thought they would when I committed to them. My hope was to have half of my time taken and still be creating my own pieces for collections. However after getting into it my mindset, skills and process have been turned completely upside down. This isn’t a bad thing. Quite the opposite, I am thrilled that I am already getting so much out of these online classes. I am in the midst of thinking up my final piece to create for this section and it is such an exciting milestone to be hitting. I can’t wait to put a piece together that takes in all of this new knowledge to bring together something really masterful.
What is the hardest part of being an artist?
This is talked about a lot with creatives but there is this part in the process of creating where you can get a sense of paralysis during a project. It can be at any part of it but it is a step in which your mind takes over and says you shouldn’t go any further because you might ruin it. Failure is not an option. This has been a problem for me FOREVER. (Also called procrastination if you want to be real.) I am the queen of getting paint on a canvas, having a plan for it, and then somewhere right in the middle I wake up and can’t possibly put another brush stroke on it. And I know you left brain people will tell me that it’s something that must be done so you just have to do it. I promise you I tell myself that every day. The trouble is when I have other canvases I can get started or I have content I need to put together or maybe even a blog that I need to write… haha this isn’t avoidance I already missed last months with the move!
What I am trying to write about here is something we all deal with on our own level in each of our days. Things that need to get done to help us move forward or grow, and our fear of failure holding us back. Fear is a real emotion and something that we obviously need or we wouldn’t even be here as humans. When it is holding us back we need to try and break through that though. Bring in Chef Ramsay and I might do it.
The best advice I have been giving myself when walking into the studio is that an ugly painting is okay. Embrace the ugly phase. Embrace the brushstroke I will have to cover up tomorrow. Embrace an idea that was hard to bring to life. Embrace the fact that every painting isn’t meant to be a masterpiece.
Its been helping. :) Little by little. I will not be perfect and there will always be days that I feel the need to take Gimli on a two hour walk instead of putting another layer on the canvas. And that is okay. Because just like my paintings, I don’t need to be perfect. I just need to move forward and be proud of my every day.
Im not trying to be your therapist here, I want your take away from my perspective is that every piece I complete was
judged harshly
and mistreated
and hard
and maybe cried over
but also,
looked at with awe at my growing skills
appreciated for these visions in my head that needed a physical presence
and in the end,
loved for the canvas that gets to exist in this world amongst all of the other bullshit that tries to bring us down.
I always appreciate all of your kind words and support on each and every one of my posts and wouldn’t be able to keep painting if I didn’t have you cheering me on at every turn.
This month ends with me turning 32! I just can’t believe my thirties get to be filled with so much exciting growth and paint on canvas. Just watch what I can do. :)
xo, Peach
Favorite artist this month @helena.b.klaus on Instagram. Favorite poem I saved by @typewrittenlovenotes J.P. Greene. 
