A Break from Painting

I’m taking a break from painting.

Bear with me for just one second while I explain…

This week I completed my final oil painting for the semester. Originally, I had set the expectation that this last piece would be my best painting yet. I guess I believed that this piece was “automatically” going to be my best work because I’d worked so hard to get to this point.

I set out to complete a masterpiece and forgot to have fun during the process… which is pretty important when it comes to creating. Perhaps I put too much pressure on myself, which is likely why it turned out so poorly. All in all, I feel very disappointed.

I decided to do a close-up painting of leaves in a tree with sunlight peaking from behind them. At first, I was very pleased with how the painting was coming along in the beginning stages. I liked the brushstrokes, and I had successfully depicted the subject matter in a way that made it visually identifiable. However, I did want to further push the translucency of the leaves after I finished the “plein air” stage.

After working from life, I took my work back to the studio to continue making adjustments while referencing a photo that I had taken on site.

Looking back, I made several mistakes with this, but the biggest one was that I adjusted way too much in the studio. As a result, I accidentally changed the original dynamic of the painting.

My goal was to capture the spontaneous movement of the leaves interacting with the wind and sun; however, I was not able to fully express this idea visually. Instead, it comes across as if I was too timid to create clear and crisp edges throughout the canvas.

The biggest lesson that I’ve taken away from this experience is that, for me personally, I prefer to do the entire painting on-site, or I would rather complete the entirety of the painting in the studio.

I enjoy doing both, but it didn’t feel like I was painting the same subject matter when I combined the two painting methods. Maybe, I just need to give it another try… okay, I’m convinced. I’ll give plein air painting combined with studio revisions another try.

All in all, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to take a small break from painting. I very much enjoy painting, but I think I’ve hit a hypnotical wall. I went full speed into painting last semester and continued at that pace this semester as well. I’m noticing that the quality of my work is slowly declining, and I suspect burnout is the culprit. This has happened to me in the past, and the solution was “rest.” After I took a break and returned to painting, I had grown so much during that rest period. I believe the result will be the same for this instance as well.

And although I plan to “rest” from painting… that doesn’t mean I’ll be sitting around doing nothing. Instead, I will be using the time to observe master artists’ work and collecting mental notes of what I see. I will be observing the art around me rather than creating it. Once I return to painting, I will have grown in my knowledge of technique and will be applying what I learn to my own work. So this summer, I will be intentional about going to art museums to observe masters’ paintings in person. I will also be reading books to learn more about the artists and their processes.

And although I’m taking a break from painting, I will be going full speed into drawing this summer, and I’m very excited to see what comes from that.