Columbia River Gorge Painting

Hey everyone! Happy Saturday!

I've been on a total painting bender the last little while here, and man does it feel good. Most of the time it feels good, at least. I just saw a friend post about her creative painting process, and it got me thinking about how I could explain my own. When my immediate family or boyfriend knows I'm out painting a mural, they will text me to ask how it's going. Depending on how far into it I am, I am either like, "GREAT! :) I LOVE PAINTING SO MUCH heart-eyes-emoticons-for-days" or... "meh. ok" (which really means: "I hate this mess I've made on someone's wall right now SO HARD.") I've done this job for long enough now though, that I've figured out my own mural-painting-feelings roller coaster. I know that the entire first day of painting, I will despise what I've made by the end of that day. I know that 5 hours of straight painting without breaks is about my limit if I want to maximize my optimal creative brainpower. Because after 5 hours, what I've been staring at starts to mush together, and I can no longer come up with visual solutions to all the problems I'm seeing. I have to leave the problems, exposed to my clients and the rest of the world (if it's an exterior mural), overnight or potentially for days. Which is the worst part. I tell clients after my first day of painting, PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE THIS YET..... or better yet, don't even LOOK at it! But the second and third (often final) days, are the recovery. The answers to yesterdays' problems seem to come to me with a good night's sleep. The final layers come so much easier. I can play with temperature glazes and exaggerated values. And the very last flicks of the lightest highlights, which is the part that always gives me a stupid-happy rush of endorphins. It just feels GOOD. 

These stages repeat themselves almost every single time. With the awareness of that, comes trust in myself and my process. I know I will hate it the first day. But I have experienced that discouragement enough times, that I know it will pass. Painting is sometimes hard and frustrating but it also makes me indescribably happy. I feel like every kind of artist on this planet can probably relate to that last sentence. Happy creating, you guys! :)

Oh...this is what I made last week: 6' x 2.5' CANVAS, not wall. Switching it up! ;) It's the Columbia River Gorge... a view from Hood River, looking back towards Portland. Ahh so luck to live here.

Happy clients, happy artist!.... but it's not a mural, bro. ;) So sweet. :)

Annnnnnnd.... here's a teeny tiny peek at what's to come. I finished this mural this morning, and will post final pictures next week. I'll tell you all about that one next. Couldn't resist taking a selfie with the roses part of this one.... because HOT PINK! ;)