Speaking of Art Blog

Sometimes people ask me how often I’m at my easel working on a piece of artwork.  Every day?  Couple days a week?  How many hours each time?  I usually tell them, "Sorry, but I don’t have an easy, straight forward answer.”  You see, I’m a fits-and-starts artist.

I have found that most artists fall into two main categories, the plod-along-set-aside-time-every-day artists, and the fits-and-starts artists like myself.  The every-day artists, like one of my art mentors, keep regular studio hours and go at their artwork Monday through Friday for at least a certain minimum number of hours each day.  They are disciplined, and some even won’t answer their phone or look at email during this ‘sacred’ time.  While I applaud them, that’s just not me.

I work on my art in fits and starts.  Some days I don’t come near my easel.  Some WEEKS I don’t come near my easel.  Then when I do, I go at a painting like a crazy woman!  I’ve been known to start and finish a piece in four hours tops.  That’s what happened with this piece, Tulip.  Most pieces take me way longer, but once I start a piece there’s no stopping me.  I work on it every spare moment for days until it’s done.

   Tulip

   pastel

   18 x 18"

I’ve probably developed this habit over the past several years out of sheer necessity.  While I don’t hold down a full time job, I still have regular appointments to keep each week.  I teach art classes at my local art center.  This task involves chunks of time here and there throughout my week.  So what’s left in my week are more chunks of time.

When my homebody daughter was a preschooler (age 27 now), she loved nothing more than to stay in her jammies and play contentedly with her toys all day.  No errands to run, no place to have to go to.  She called them “plain old days”.  She’d get up in the morning and ask me, “Is this a plain old day?  I hope so.” 

I must admit that I too am a homebody and on a “plain old day” I love to work at a painting from sunup ‘til sundown, and really get somewhere with it, not just put down one layer.  I’ve actually started in on a painting mid-morning and realized by mid-afternoon that I haven’t even gotten out of my pajamas and I’ve worked right through lunch!  I usually do lose a couple of pounds when I’m working on a large painting because I’m not grazing in the kitchen.  Instead I’m working, I'm driven to finish what I've started.  Great way to lose weight, by the way!

So there’s my answer to the question:  How often do you paint?  In fits and starts, and long long hours on plain old days.