EASEL TIDES: GAIL M. ALLEN'S PAINTING JOURNAL

Gail Allen is a classically trained artist living in New Hampshire, USA, who sculpts, paints and creates custom designed landscapes, murals and event products.
Please click here to view my painting gallery site:
Gail M. Allen Fine Art

If you like my work, but are not ready to purchase a painting,
you may purchase fine art prints or cards with my paintings on them at my site: Gail Allen Contemporary Fine Art (Print and Card Shop)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven

Many articles are written regarding procrastination and how to find time to work at our artwork. The last two years have been a real test of my commitment to my work. Sometimes I think of it as the universe testing me to see how badly I really want this vocation. What has worked for me through my own personal battle with a health issue, a child recently diagnosed with a serious health condition and just recently,  dealing with an ailing elderly parent is to take ANY free moment to sketch, write notes describing a picture in my mind"s eye, or to actually paint if I'm at home. If I don't have it in me to do that, I at least read a book on an artist or creativity, which inevitably jump starts my inspiration to create. The busier I get, the more adamant I am that I do something creatively related. Sometimes its just to sketch a face or gesture of a person near me, wherever I may be at the time. Twyla Tharp's book, The Creative Habit  has an exercise called "Where's Your Pencil" that taught me to never leave home without a pencil and sketchbook. Sometime its just working outside in the garden, looking at plant colors and textures or sculptural elements.
 The other day, I hung up the phone after speaking with a doctor about a medicine they were giving my Mom, and began to research the drug, Digoxin. To my surprise, the article referred to Van Gogh's Yellow Period and his Starry Night painting. On a number of medical sites they referred to the fact that foxglove has long been known to help cardiac issues. The toxicity of digitalis, (which Van Gogh took for Epilepsy), "may have played a role in Van Gogh's use of swirling greens and yellows" and the "halos" in Starry Night. That lead me to go back and do some research on Van Gogh's work. He also often painted foxgloves in his pictures. Somehow, every aspect of my day, all of it, relates to the whole. If you look hard enough, you will find how easy it is to work at your craft, no matter what else you are involved in. The endpoint being my work in the studio. All it takes is commitment, the rest will follow. What will I be working on next....foxgloves for sure!

2 comments:

-Don said...

What a wonderfully encouraging and enlightening post. I love how you 'find' art wherever you look and whatever you're doing. Stay adamant. You're on the right path...

-Don

Gail Allen Fine Art said...

Thanks Don. One of my favorite quotes is by Shakespeare:"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves."
I recently read a post regarding the number of emails from artists who just can't seem to work, it got me thinking about what a painting incorporates, besides our time working at the easel.